The Mom Blah Blah Blog

There is a scaredy cat in my house.  My son seems to be afraid of everything right now and I have no idea why.  He's waking up crying at night, he's having screaming fits when he hears noises, he won't go downstairs without someone to turn on the light (it's not a dark basement at all), he has decided he does not like water any longer and bugs... forget about it!  He wouldn't even put on his suit when we were hanging out around my cousin's pool.  He did warm up to it a bit and got quite soaked splashing around the sides with toys but he never was quite brave enough to venture in.  Even little kiddy pools bother him for a while until he sees all the fun his sister is having and then you can't get him out hardly.  It is a very different situation for me to deal with a child that is afraid.  My daughter has never really been scared very easily although she does over think things like loosing teeth and death.  She's a worrier but she isn't exactly fear

I've spoken a few times before about mental illness and the struggle I have had in understanding and being sensitive to someone who faces these challenges.  This has become even more apparent over the last few days.  My mother in law had been falling a lot and ended up breaking her leg.  She was living on her own and has trouble getting around due to her replaced hips.  Once the nurse came in it was apparent to her that my mother in law could no longer safely continue to be self sufficient.  She required surgery on her leg and has spent almost the last month in the hospital.  This week however, an opening was made available in a long term care facility for her.  This week has been full of preparation, paperwork and adjustments.  Yesterday she was moved into her new home.  We headed over yesterday to see her settled in.  My husband needed to go over a huge stack of paperwork while the kids and I sat with her and spoke with some of the nurses.  She has been a very heavy smoker for

I had a little visit with my therapist last night.  Her name is old writing books.  I was looking for some old pictures and writing from the team I was on 20 years ago and though I still can't seem to find them I did go through a lot of old correspondence that I had forgotten about.  Reading through some of the notes, letters and poems from old friends made me realize a few things.  It seems that sometimes we girls have a tendency to want to "fix" boys.  There just seems to be some draw in being the one that can swoop in, pick up the pieces of a broken and wounded boy and be the only one that can make sense of the mess and put everything back together.  Maybe this is the draw of the "bad boy".  We want to be his savior, his confidant, the only bright and shining light in his world.  What I failed to see though is you can't put together something that doesn't want to fixed.  There were a few "relationships" I had like this. I also had quite

20 years ago today I was stepping off a bus in some swampy land in Florida to meet a whole bunch of strangers I would soon count as some of my very closest friends.  Living in extreme circumstances can do that to people.  You may think, "What's so extreme about Florida?" but those who would say that have most likely not heard of TMI.  Teen Missions International.  It's an organization that sends teens all over the world to do all kinds of missions.  Building all manner of buildings, bringing relief supplies, working on water purification projects and helping in orphanages for a few examples.  I'm not talking touristy beach front property where we lounged with tropical drinks and read to our hearts content.  We were setting out to Mexico to build 3 lodgings for an agency that desperately needed space for traveling missionaries.  I was 15 years old (yes if you can do math that makes me 35 now) and very nervous about how I would fit in on this team and if I would b

When you are a kid people always ask you, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  If you asked my daughter last week she would have said hairdresser, or taking care of butterflies in a butterfly conservatory.  This week she announced that she thinks she wants to be a teacher, like Ms. Winfield (she's attempting to be teachers pet I believe).  When I was little there was a while that I wanted to be a Dentist.  Yep, you heard me right.  Dentist.  I'm not really sure why that was something I aspired to.  I think I remember reading somewhere that Dentists are the most universally hated people.  That desire faded as I got older, and most likely had more dental work done.  lol  As I finished high school it caused a sort of panic.  I had no idea!  I enrolled in a one year general knowledge program at a Bible College and hoped that maybe I would gain some direction.  After that year I thought maybe counseling would be a good option for me so after a year of working to sav

I've been preoccupied by a project I'm working on and haven't been posting but I thought I would take the opportunity today to update you on how I've been doing on a few goals I set for myself.  You know the whole accountability thing. First I was hoping that I would be able to meet in the middle with my husband.  He was hoping to put on a few pounds and I was hoping to shed a few.  So far that had failed... epically.  Even though he added an extra 900 calories to his day he was still unable to increase his weight very much.  Maybe a little bit but with the somewhat physical nature of his work does not allow for him to keep it on very long.  It also seems I chose a pretty terrible month to attempt that particular project.  April and May are pretty much my worst (outside of Christmas) time for watching my weight.  In April there are family functions, a few of them, and those mean food, and lots of it.  Easter, both kids birthdays, my birthday, a mini vacation, a stag a

Poetry used to be a much bigger part of my life.  As a teen and even into my early 20s I wrote a fair bit of it.  Looking back, not much of it is worth repeating and will most likely ever see the light of day again but it was a huge outlet for me at the time.  I don't know if anyone else ever did this but I actually exchanged poetry with a few people and would almost have a type of poetic banter.  One of the most embarrassing things to happen to me in those days was when a guy from school had a rose and a poem delivered to my house... when I was not there... that was accepted by my father.  On the flip side of that, a boyfriend I had wrote one of the most beautiful things about me that I think I have ever received.  Though it was when I was 18 I can still quote it word for word.  It was so touching and for a girl with low self esteem it actually really caught me off guard and did amazing things for the way I saw myself... until he ruined it.  The mutual friend that had introduced

Yesterday I got a friend invite from a senior that I know that lives in the village where my mom works.  She is a sweet lady and I always think it's super cool when seniors are tech savvy and using Facebook.  She then proceeded to use the chat function to start up a conversation.  I was happy to have a little chat with her but it quickly turned strange.  She started off by mentioning the the marriage of Mark Zuckerberg.  Once again, I thought it was unusual for a senior to be interested in that sort of pop culture news but I grinned and thought it was cute.  She started to tell me that in honor of the marriage they are picking random profiles and giving away $90,000.  I start to worry.  Things like this instantly ring bells of cation for me and I am concerned that this lovely lady is going to get taken in a scam.  My conversation with her continues and the wording and content becomes even odder.  This person isn't talking in the method I would expect and isn't interested

It was close to this time last year that I started thinking about training to run a 5k.  I didn't have the cash to be joining a gym or buying equipment so I figured running might be a lower cost option to take.  I wanted to do the Run For The Cure and I wanted to get in better shape.  I should have gotten new shoes and talked gotten someone to take a look at my form and help me get started but there was that problem with cost effectiveness and I set out on my own.  Following a couch to 5k running guide I set out on the sidewalk... and almost immediately hurt myself.  My knee was in pain, my feet hurt a lot and my shins were a mess.  I rested for a long while, moved to running on the road and swapped out my shoes for a slightly larger and even less supportive pair but they didn't hurt.  I had far better results and was in much less pain.  Once I managed to run the 5k in October my running petered out a bit.  It was getting cold and I started to swap out running for more time on

I have a wedding to attend in September.  I'm super excited about it and of course want to look fantastic!  I think most women think about these things quite far in advance and since I'm used to not being able to find anything that fits I'm still in the habit of months in advance shopping.  Since I was in one of the stores near our new Marshals yesterday I decided to go in and try some things on.  My son was not very happy about this event although he did enjoy the lights in the change room.  I did have to promise him a special lunch to keep him somewhat quiet and well behaved and I can't say even that worked very well.  I didn't get a chance to try on to many things due to the fore mentioned child an quickly grabbed 3 choices from the racks.  The first was a red halter top.  It was crazy how different it looked on than on the hanger.  It ended up being almost totally backless and had a slit that was most scandalous.  I quickly returned that to the hanger.  There wa

I've distracted myself with a project I've been working on and haven't really been focused on blogging.  I thought I would take a short break for a little blog about my day. It was a school day today and I took my son out for a little Fathers day shopping.  He wasn't very happy.  He wanted to go home but I bribed him with McDonald's for lunch and that bought me a few more minutes in the store.  We really don't do so much fast food and thankfully one of our favorite stops when we're out is Subway.  It's a much healthier option for them but McDonald's does call to them once in a while.  They really have found a way to capture the interest of the kid market and, by association, the parents.  Before the kids came along I think I might have eaten at McDonald's maybe once a year, if that.  It was not the top of my list by far for fast, while your out, food. The way they get them is through the entertainment!  They have the best play zones, the best