Endless Pursuit for Mom of the Year

You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love;   the running across fields into your lover's arms can only come late, when you're sure they won't laugh if you trip.   ~Jonathan Carroll --------------------------------- Dad of the year and I have been married 20 years today.  Wow!  Where did that time go?  It's been one heck of a roller coaster all those years.  Even though I tease you often, you put up with me.  At times I've been emotional, you've put up with me.  Times when I maybe made you feel inadequate, you put up with me.  People say this often but I can't really imagine my life without you.  So, here are 20 reasons why I love you (which was tough because obviously there are more than 20 reasons).  Here we go: 1.  We have been together since I was 16 years old.  I don't know of many other people who have known me through growing up, drunken college years, job hunting, child rearing and...

Sometimes I get so weird, I even freak myself out.  ~Unknown --------------- I recently took one of those leadership quiz type things and it described me as the "Maverick Leader."  Under the highest and best value of the maverick leader it says this:  You're independent, confident and perhaps a little eccentric.  We all have those moments that happen so quickly we're left reeling with the sensation of "why did I just do that?"  Well, chalk this one up as a reason to call me eccentric.  Daughter of the year #2 has struggled to get ready in the morning.  She just wants to sleep and I have tried every combination of laughs, pokes, outbursts, anything just to get her out of bed.  Every time I am met with sad brown eyes and the plea, "Will you help me get dressed?"  Ugh. She is at an age where she can certainly dress herself, she is just too tired in the morning to do so.  We made a deal on this day that she gets...

Drench yourself in words unspoken. Live your life with arms wide open.   Today is, where your book begins.   The rest is still unwritten.   -Natasha Bedingfield I've sat down to write so many times I've lost track.  I get started then stop.  Something was always missing. Wittiness. A lesson. Humor. An ending that made sense.  Something!  I would always leave that writing for another day.  Another day never came.  Time after time, I'd go back to it, then scrap it and start over.   Starting over.  What a funny notion.  An empty piece of paper, a blank slate, always clean and new.  Always. I mean, who would argue the best part of school starting was new notebooks.  No writing or markings, just waiting for fresh knowledge.  Ok, so I still love a new notebook.   Losing someone you care for always makes you reflect on things, on your own notebooks of time; your blank pie...

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.   ~ Judy Garland ---------------------------------------------------------- I wish I could give the best of myself every day.  Now, I know some of you are saying well, then just do it!  For me, it's not that easy. I'm human. I slip up. I get moody. Sad. And in general, life just gets in the way.  Most days, I wish I were super woman. Able to cook, clean, have a pristine house, and hold it all together while wearing a perfectly styled hairdo. It just doesn't work that way.  Mostly, it makes me sad to realize that my family never seems to get that best of me opportunity.  We exude it all day (or at least attempt to) with co-workers, gas station attendants, customers and generally anyone else we come into contact with.  Yet my poor family gets the leftovers.  I don't know about you, but I've never been much of a leftover fan.   I...

You will never have this day with your children again -  tomorrow they'll be a little bit older than they are today.   TODAY is a gift, breathe & notice, smell & hold them,  study their faces & little feet & pay attention.  Enjoy today mama - it will be over before you know it.   Relish the charms of the present.   --Jen Hatmaker -------------------------------------------------- Time. It's a funny thing really. When you are working, there seems to be too much of it. When you are having fun, there's never enough.  Either way, it is something we all have a limited amount of and how we spend that time is what counts.  This very sentiment has been on my mind for some time now.  Yes, I know, time that has lapsed FAR too long in actually sitting down and writing in this blog (I hope you've missed me as much as I missed you).  Either way, I prefer to pick up here right where we left off.  Like w...

A teacher's purpose is not to create students in his own image, but to develop students who can create their own image. ~ Author Unknown -------------------------- What a powerful influence teachers are to young minds!  We have been blessed to have fantastic teachers as daughter of the year #1 progresses through school.  One of them just stands out among the others.   I normally don't use names in my blog, but there could be a million Ms. Green's out there, so we'll go with it.  Daughter of the year #1 and I both know, to us, there's really only ONE Ms. Green. It's no secret that #1 has struggled with her confidence over the years and after a terrifying 1st grade bullying incident, I just wanted to throw in the towel!  FIRST GRADE people!  Second grade got better, in spite of those "bathtub conversations."  But, I might not ever forget the day I took #1 to school to see who her 3rd grade teacher would be.  I'm still not sure...

You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.  ~ Ogden Nash ----------------------------------- Whew!  Today was a big day.  BIG day!  I turned 40.  How in the hell did that happen?  It honestly seems I was just turning 30 not that long ago.  As I begin that trip "over the hill" let me relive my day for you.  This, my friends, truly IS 40! I felt this way.  Really I did.  But today I felt too damn old to deal with a 4 year old fit on my bathroom floor against the bathtub.  All this over the pants I put on her today.   The fit ended just long enough to give me a taste of my favorite musical treat:  the recorder!  This time, #1 played the piano while #2 blew with the force of a very mighty wind through her sister's recorder.  After all, it's never too early to start the day with Tylenol.      I'm 40 now, so I went all Seinfeld today and ...