launched

I think my daughter is officially launched. She walked into the preschool room, hung up her jacket and didn't look back. Now if it were only so easy to launch myself as a writer. I'm having trouble making those early morning dates to write, I just sleep right through. If I stayed up to write, my mornings would be hellish to say the least. Wah, listen to me whine.

Oh well, so much for the instant gratification aspect of blogging. It's one thing to see my writing out there, it's another to look at the comment bar and see a big fat zero next to comments. Is anybody out there? And have you visited this site?

Pop Tarts anyone?

You know it's a bad day when you are reduced to buying Pop-Tarts for your kids after school snack. I used to be near fanantical about not purchasing products that contained partially hydrogenated oil. My oldest daughter could be heard asking me up and down the grocery aisles, " does this have the bad oil in it?" Now that I no longer have the budget to pursue that luxury I look back and I see that I was actually rather smug about it. I never talked trash about other people's snacks and didn't make them forbidden to my kids on playdates with their friends; but I wouldn't buy them. I can remember after making a soy nut butter sandwich for my son being horrified when a friend of mine blurted out, " For heavens sakes, give that boy some Jiff". Now if you look in my cupboard that's exactly what you'll find, Jiff. It became too expensive to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for three kids and one Dad day in and day out with the natural stuff. I made a valiant effort when we could afford it to limit the partially hydrogentated oil and artificial stuff that came in to our home. Now with two hungry grade schoolers and a preschooler with an eczema related milk sensitivity I find it near impossible to go to the store with the same list as before. I just want to buy something reasonably priced that everyone can eat, but as a result that "bad oil" has crept back into our diet. Ignorance is bliss sometimes. Before I learned about the damaging effects of partially hydrogenated oil I loved to buy refrigerated biscuits and crescent rolls. Especially the crescent rolls, because nobody that I know has the time needed to make crescent rolls or croissants. There's some guy out there offering millions of dollars for the first space flight by a private individual. I think the contest needs to be brought back to Earth and a prize should be given to the individual who makes the first crescent rolls in a refrigerated tube made without partially hydrogentated oil. Let the games begin.

New Mommy Top Five List

We went to the Christening of my chidhood friend's first child this weekend. By we I mean all six of us. We were even on time. It helped though that the baby was hungry and had to nurse before the ceremony. Sometimes the prayers you utter in despair while in the car do work. In honor of Jen and all the new mommies I know, I've decided to make a top five list for new mommies. Someone ought to tell it like it is so I guess it might as well be me!

1) Sometimes a shower is the major accomplishment of the day and that is just fine. When my first child was born a little early and he was learning to stay awake to eat the two of us lived in a big green rocking chair.

2) Assuming you are a duo,keep your instructions to yourself when Daddy is on baby duty. The diaper will work fine backwards, and the sleeper suit will stay snapped let him get the Daddy confidence he needs by doing all the things that need to be done. This is a very fine time for a NAP or a snack.

3)Friends and relatives who are a few years ahead on the mommy curve know all the shortcuts and will tell you so. However, it is your absolute right as a new mommy to be as neurotic about your baby as you need to be. Use that wipes warmer now to your heart's content because one day you might forget about it.

4)Learn now that mothering is not a competitive sport. After having four kids I am in awe of the range at which milestones happen for each child. May you be blessed to find friends that will share more than compare.

5)Mommy and Me refers to more than just a class. It took me a while to learn to be both mommy and "me". Don't be alarmed if you feel off balance for a while, you have just experienced a huge shift. There is are so many sides to this mothering thing. Think of it this way, a diamond is multi-faceted, why should you expect to be any less?


What can I say? After having four kids it seems like a waste if I don't share what I've learned.

stomach flu

After a week of the stomach flu I am ready to write again. My son and oldest daughter came down with it with in hours of each other on Sunday evening and my husband got it all through the night. Just when I thought the two youngest girls had escaped they threw up within minutes of each other on Tuesday night. I jokingly told my friends that I was the last one standing, but by Friday morning I was laid out by this thing, it was vicious.

It could have been avoided. We caught it from our neighbors. The father just mentioned in passing to my husband that his wife was upstairs sick in bed. What he neglected to mention was that their youngest son had brought this disaster in the making home from daycare. By the end of that day their oldest son had it too. All I could do was console myself that at least we had been outside the whole time. Tell that to the bug, because it didn’t seem to matter. In 36 hours we would be toast.

To all the moms and dads out there who sound the alarm at a sniffle, hats off to you.