Mental Musings

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 c...

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...