Mental Musings

It's was misty/foggy/dreary day yesterday..... there's something about fog and mist that allows one to become more aware and to see things almost for the first time. Cars, buildings, lights, and people slowly come in to focus - appearing out of nowhere - much like they didn't exist until the fog parts and headlights shine, letting you know that they are there and to pay attention. The fog tends to blind us, yet it reminds us to keep our eyes open and to watch for important information - such as a car stopping, a person walking, stop lights changing - but it really reminds us to shake our own head to clear the fog and mist and truly see where our life is going. Are you happy? Are you doing something every day to achieve your goals or dreams? Are you spending every moment doing something that you love? and if not....why? What do you need to change to overcome the obstacle preventing you from being happy or achieving your dreams.....or better yet what is stopping you from

The thing about life changes is that you tend to forget about other things that matter too.... I'm having a hard time getting back in to this blogging thing. Mainly the lack of the ability to form complete thoughts...things start - I think about a lot of things, then they flutter away like the leave outside my window on a cold, windy night. Quotes run through my head - no, not famous ones....ones I make up as retorts to people around me. Comebacks for the idiot majority that has no idea that their life has or will have any meaning. Tongue lashings that will never be voiced because of who the world has conditioned me to be.  I never used to be that way - I used to really tell who ever, what ever I wanted and be able to walk away without any guilt or distaste.  Does this mean I grew up - not so sure....part of me screams that I lost myself and it's clawing it's way back tooth and nail to the surface. Oh sure I can put on a 'face' to the general public...then com

So no one tells you when you have kids or more than one kid or when you decide to have another kid when you are finally old enough and responsible enough....how isolating it can be. No one ever tells you how much you will crave another human in adult form. No one ever prepares you for the word vomit any time someone over the age of 20 talks to you about anything remotely significant, such as "Hi, how are you today" at the grocery check out line and then you explaining why you are buying milk(because your 3 year old wanted cereal and you ran out of milk at bedtime the night before). No one prepares you for the absolute need for a connection to someone else in your shoes, such as your massage therapist rubbing your sore muscles while swapping horror stories on your 3 & 4 year-old attitudes that morning. Even spending an extra 1/2 hour with you daycare provider when you pick up your child, talking about things that have absolutely no relation to how your child's day was.

When I started this blog I thought "What an awesome a way to get back in to writing without having to stick to a set style and without seeming too whiny". I never really thought it would take off or become a viral blog right away. Nor did I expect live blog sites to be spamming my email begging me to write for them and paying me for it - although that is still a distant dream. What I did expect is that I would be funny, insightful, and it would be laden with advice and stories of what my kids do and what I experience - much like this group of ladies . Yet without being too overbearing with "TMI" instances or too intimate in to the inner workings of my family that we loose privacy. I did expect that I would write at least weekly, but alas 8 blog posts and 4 months later - I'm struggling with content and frequency. Since I seem to like making lists in my blogs, last night I began thinking of thing I could write about: 1. Potty training - struggles and succes

Last month I gained another year - I can no longer say that I'm 30...I've gone into the realm of 30-something, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Though it has gotten me thinking about a lot of stuff - which sometimes is a bad thing. First let me step up on a soapbox:  Why is 30 THE age? The age when you should have done something with your life, should have found that special someone/gotten married/started a family. Why is 30 the turning point in some one's life - when they go "Oh SHIT I'm 30 and I have done NOTHING with my life!" and then break down in tears, go on a shopping binge or throw a pity party. Why is it when someone, especially women, reach the age of 30 they are too 'old' to start over, yet still too 'young' to be stagnate or unhappy with their life. They are viewed as being unaccomplished, uneducated, or incapable if they are not successful, not in a high position at work, haven't gotten married/had kids, haven

Society over the years has taught us to be shameful of our bodies - no matter how 'skinny,' 'toned,' or 'fit'. To cover it up, to hide it because "No One wants to see 'that'"! We have been conditioned to loose the weight and keep it off, because if you do - your partner will love you more, you will get a better job, your kids will treat you better, your friends will want to hang out more, and a plethora of other lame excuses to make you feel bad enough about yourself to starve, work and run your body down until you are 'happy'.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing exercise; losing weight to be healthier, have more energy, sleep better, and be able to take care of your family more - YES - but that doesn't mean you have to be a size 0 or 2 or even a size 8. It's about what is healthy for you and your body and what makes you feel good. My 2 year old has taught me something over the last few months - it feels great to b

It's staring at you from across the room, little eyes shining in the moonlight, lying in wait for you to make just one wrong move. You are sitting there exhausted by the previous fight, alone in the dark, and you're waiting for it to once again let out the banshee scream that reverberates through the whole house. You know you won't win this way....but you'll be damned if you let overpower you and come out the victor ! Mexican standoff (defined as: most precisely a confrontation between opponents, facing each other, with no clear winner. Each participant holds power over one opponent, and is at the mercy of the other opponent. Following any path of who holds power over whom invariably leads back to the original person after visiting all other participants. More opponents can be added as long as they fit into the above rule and thus do not change the balance of power.) What I am talking about is bed time, as this does pertain to many other arguments as

Having a children with two entirely different tastes in food, make supper time and really any meal/snack/food discussion difficult. 12 year old refuses to eat any veggies or fruit, and only some meats that don't have any spice/sauce/flavor. 2 year old loves fruit, veggies, but refuses any meat. Then add husband who thinks veggies are devil spawn and a mom(me) who just wants everyone to be healthy and have a balanced diet.... so food is one of the most stressful and difficult decisions in my house. Multiply that by said husband being in school all but 2 days a week, 12 year old at friends house or park directly after school until dark, and 2 year old that is never hungry at the 'right' time....all that usually results in no one eating at the same time or the same thing. When I was a young single parent, I lived with my mother so we had meals prepare and at the table mostly every night. When I moved out on my own, in my early 20's, I cooked and eldest and I still ate at

Being a mother of 2 children 10 years apart, I have a 12 year old and a 2 year old, does have perks and then again it has disadvantages. So before I get in to the meat of this blog I'll list some of each...*note list is not all encompassing of both sides* PERKS: 1. While getting ignored by one, you get cuddles and hugs from the other. 2. Teaching one about responsibility and consequences, you can provide a proper example for the other. 3. While teaching one about responsibility, you still have fun being a 'kid' with the other 4. Watching the oldest still have some symbolical instances of innocence while playing with the youngest. 5. Being able to watch more than just kids shows all the time when one child is still awake. CONS: 1: Knowing the youngest is watching the eldest's attitudes toward me and mimicking them 2. The lack of help from either child - 1 being too young and 1 not caring enough to help out 3. Instilling the proper discipline across age group

It’s all fun and games until someone poops in the bathtub… I’ll tell you a little something about myself, I find farting funny. The word (I really can’t even say it without giggling or cracking a smile), the sound, the smell (ok maybe not so much), the myth that women don’t do it (seriously we don’t), the way my dad tries to get my kids to ‘pull his finger’, the various types, the way my husband tries to blame it on the dog or the floor or a chair, the reactions of other people, ‘fluffing’, and I even loose my thought process if one is let loose while I’m talking (I have to take a second to compose myself before I can continue).  So of course hilarity ensues at my house with the 2 year old let’s ‘em fly. We use various words or phrases to describe farting that include the word fart (teehee) , toot(ing), let ‘er rip, gas, better out than in and stinky. Today she was especially gassy which usually leads to other items that come out of that end of the body, lets just say I lost count

I'm not a crafty person, I don't have the time nor the patience, nor the know how. BUT my good friend Tara is and I envy her because she works full time, is acheiving her masters degree, takes care of her family (of sometimes 5 kids), and still finds time to scrapbook and make fun stuff for her kids to play with...a true super-mom. The other day she posted how to make play-doh and it seemed simple enough. My 2 year old has never played with play-doh(maybe at grandmas, but never at home)...and I didn't know how she would take to it. But she's having blast, creating shapes, animals, towers, and 'food'. I'm happy that's it's made with 'natural' ingredients in case she does decide to 'eat' it...which she had already popped a couple pieces in her mouth and spit them out because they "taste yucky". The the "Thanks Mom" is all the motivation I need to start looking for some other things to do/make with the k

I’m not religious, and if you ask me I will tell you that when we die our bodies rot in the ground and become the best chemical infused fertilizer that insurance money can buy. BUT that said, I get to be a walking contradiction and say that I was brought up in a Catholic household: Church every Sunday with doughnuts/juice after, Wednesday night ‘Sunday school’, holidays celebrated including Midnight Mass on Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Easter Vigil, no meat Friday’s/Fish Fry’s, Palm Sunday, Baptism, First Confession (and many more after that), First Communion, and all the way up to Confirmation. Which was the day I just couldn’t bring myself to do it anymore, coupled with some holier than thou peers that thought they knew it all (yes I got bullied in church school). So I basically abandoned my faith, if you will. It’s not that I don’t think that there could be an afterlife, sins, karma, doing good, no free will, fate, reincarnation, etc. I just believe that you have more control of your l