Dreams and Reality

It was time. It needed an update. I know, pink stripes don't seem very novel, but they have a certain cozy elegant feel which appeals to me. Picture a dressing room in the 1800's lit by oil lamp with pink stripe wallpaper. There is a fireplace to one side with a roaring fire, in front of which the old family dog lies. The room is furnished with an elaborately carved dressing table on which are sitting a silver tray with various perfumes and a hairbrush and comb with marble handles. The tall window has lace curtains which are pulled back to allow a view of the snowy field beyond which can barely be seen as the evening light fades. There is a lovely woman in the room who is being attended to by her ladies maid as she prepares to meet the guests who have just begun arriving for supper. There is already much talk and laughter wafting up from downstairs and the evening is guaranteed to be a pleasant one, considering the guest list tonight.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather find out what happens in that story than finish reading this blog post! No, please don't go. I promise, that story is a figment of my imagination, and I have not decided what happens next. Maybe I have been reading too much 19th century literature lately. For book club several months ago, we read Pride and Predjudice since some of our members had not read it yet. Then 2 weeks ago, we all got together on a Friday evening and watched the long BBC production with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. Which of course put me in the mood for more Jane Austen, and as I injured my neck two days after that, I laid in bed and watched the four-part version of Emma and the two-part version of Sense and Sensibility. Now I am listening to Sense and Sensibility on my Overdrive app while I drive to and from work, because it's been nearly 18 years since I read the book and I had to find out how accurate the two different movies on that book really are.

Now I have wasted an entire thirty minutes trying to find a photo to go with the picture in my head, but there are none, at least not that I have the patience to find. So I guess I should re-orient my head to my agenda for today, part of which is to make that blueberry cake/bread I mentioned yesterday. Maybe I'll make it for breakfast. Or maybe I'll make coconut flour pancakes for breakfast and that cake for lunch. Although odds are, I'll be busy doing half a dozen things by lunch and not want to actually stop to cook. I think today, though, my focus should be to enjoy the minutes, not over-plan and over-work myself as those things invariably lead to a stressed and iritable wife and mother. Yes, just breathe. How's wine at 6:30 am sound? JUST KIDDING!!!

Keep Going...

So I just read a depressing article about a woman younger than me with severe endometriosis. Now granted, she was worse than me. I am stage 4, but there are clearly levels of stage 4. Then I was depressed (for about 5 minutes), then resigned (for 30 seconds) and now I am determined that I will kick this thing in the butt.

There you have it, my last 30 minutes of this morning. Then I read my my new little devotional, and decided it's nice to know that everyone has those days of feeling completely inadequate as a parent and that's how God designed parenting---to be a sanctifying experience. Next I read Psalm 24-25 and began feeling better. 

Now I am resolved on making breakfast (fried eggs on kale topped with caramelized onions) , trying a new coconut flour/blueberry recipe I found for lunch, doing some cleaning and organizing, and homeschooling with Boy today (Daddy does it with him on the days I work, and I do it on my days off.). 

Christian Fellowship

 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts

Last night, we did not go to bed until midnight. Why? Because we got together with some friends and were having a merry time chatting until one man whispered something to his wife, and she said out loud, "It's 10:15?! We have to go!" Whereupon we all bundled up our various children and left promptly, they getting their five children out the door before we got our one child out. Yep, they have more practice getting children out the door than we do, lol! We got there at nearly 7pm, then after the kids worked out some energy we ate, then while said kids made as much noise as you would expect eight children to make, we all sat at the table and talked. So really, we barely had two hours to chat, but it was wonderful and I didn't even notice how far past my bedtime I was until the announcement was made.  We women discussed parenting, and what our obsessions/perfectionisms as moms are, and what we do that we never thought we would do, and how that at some point we all quit being honest with each other at church. You know what I mean, it's hard to just say "Well really my week was lousy because I felt like a complete failure as a mother and a wife.", when you stop to chat with someone for a minute before checking to see why your child was running past you at full-bore when he knows he is not supposed to run in the church. It just highlights why it's so important to have Christian fellowship outside of Sunday morning. Why we need to actually make the time to make plans and get together so we can talk and be real. This is one of the things I love about our church. Every Sunday there is an informal potluck and we all just bring some food to share and we sit and talk while the kids play. There is no timeline, we just eventually clean up and leave when we are good and ready, and sometimes that is not till after the evening service.

Christian fellowship was essential for believers in the early church, and it is just as essential for us today. In fact how much more for us today, in the world of Facebook and Instagram with our perfect pictures and perfect status updates and perfect Pinterest ideas, is it for us to just get together in person and talk. Break bread together. Remember, when God made people, there was no social media, the only way to interact was face-to-face. There was no pretending or putting on airs, there was only naked honesty! And while some things have changed, like that we all wear clothes and drive cars and live in houses, one thing has not: we need real-time fellowship, and we need to talk and be open with each other. Bare your souls so you know how to pray for each other. I think you will be surprised that the things that plague you the most, those things you are most ashamed to admit, are the exact same things that everyone else is struggling with!

B6 Toxicity Journey Begins

I had never heard of B6 toxicity. I grew up with a Mom who viewed the RDA for vitamins a suggested minimum and who still takes supplements of everything. Well last Tuesday we found out my husband has toxic levels of B6. Not because his doctor wanted to check but because my husband asked him to check another vitamin level so the doctor ordered a who vitamin panel apparently. I called last week on Thursday and left a message with records asking them to send a copy of the blood tests and they did not call me back. So I hope they've just mailed them, but either way I have to call them today and try to get some more information. My husband was only occasionally taking COQ10 which has some B6 in it, it's hard to think that was causing the toxicity. Do you have any idea what B6 can do to a person??? Numbness, tingling, pain, headaches and on and on. Pretty much screws up the nervous system. And although it is "water soluble" once you get more than your body can handle, it takes years to undo the damage. And we still have no idea WHY! The neurologist basically told us to analyze the food he eats. REALLY???? Well I have been spending time researching some "whys" but mostly figuring out a meal plan that won't completely deprive him of every other nutrient out there while still maintaining a low B6 intake; yep that means checking every single thing or ingredient, keeping a log, and lots of math. So that has been a little overwhelming.

Friday I got my fertility cleanse stuff in the mail so I have had to get serious about an endometriosis diet, so this cleanse isn't completely worthless. I did a bunch of grocery shopping before my husband's diagnosis which means I have frozen pork which neither of us can eat now. I am supposed to only eat chicken, fish, and turkey, and he can have small amounts of chicken and hamburger and sausage and bacon and never pork roast or pork chops. At least I do have lots of chicken. So last night I made turkey burgers for me and Boy and hubby got a beef burger. Hubby and boy had green beans and salad while I had green beans and a sweet potato. Although I probably should have had salad too, I just didn't want it. 

Yesterday I pulled my neck while yawning. Yep. I had just finished reviewing the music I was playing for church when while setting my music book on the table I yawned and the left side of my neck cramped up. I could hardly move. Hubby rubbed it for a few minutes but I hurt so bad that didn't help much so I got in bed and put heat on and ended up staying in bed all day. Which meant hubby and Boy went to church without me and hubby got to teach the 7th Commandment to a group of very fidgety high-energy 8-10 year olds all by himself in Sunday School. No, our child was not on his best behavior either. Apparently when there was a lull in the prelude music, he whispered very loudly, "Hey Pastor, you're up." Oh ya, almost as mortifying as the time... well there have been too many of those times to keep track of, so why bother recounting any one of them. Suffice it to say, parenting is never what you thought it would be! 

Almost Older, and Diet Progress

Tomorrow I turn 36. For a while I thought I was turning 37 because I already had turned 36 in my mind, so that's a pathetic state of affairs. Today is my day off, and I'm trying not to think about the rest of this week. I work the next 4 days, (not today) and two of those evenings are get-togethers with girlfriends. Saturday will be a family birthday party for me, my Mom, and my sis-in-law. Sunday afternoon will be a 1st birthday party for hubby's nephew, then back to work Monday. The homebody/introvert in me is already crying. Actually I do love getting together with everyone but it still wears me out to think about it. If any of my friends read this, please DON'T TAKE IT PERSONALLY!!!!!! I mostly am really an extrovert but 5:00am getting up means by 7:00pm that I don't feel super sociable some days. Hmmm, I'm trying, but there's no way to make any of that sound better so I'll move on before I dig my grave.

The diet thing hasn't happened really well. I'm good for a couple days then something happens again. Friday it was Costco pizza. Sunday it was Taco Bell because it was 4:30 pm and we were just getting home from church because it was the annual congregational meeting and those always seem to run long and we were tired and hungry and just wanted food NOW and yes I know this is a run-on sentence. Boy was completely happy with his bean burrito. Hubs and I felt regret about half-way through the meal. So, bloated and feeling none too good, our stomachs will probably hate us for the next couple days because we are too old to eat Lleb Ocat. Tonight is my birthday dinner with Hubby at Pastini and tomorrow at work we are going to have BBQ and lemon meringue pie. So START being good on Wednesday and try to be decently good until then.

I was just asked "Have you successfully updated NASA's codes? It sure sounds like that's what you're doing, with authority."  Apparently I type loudly and who on earth is doing anything at 5:55 am anyway with vigor? Well if I don't type now, I certainly won't make time later. And boy is not up yet, which is good considering how much he wore himself out playing with his friends outside yesterday.
Also now that I realized it is already 5:55 am, I am disappointed. The alarm went off at 4:30 (when hubby normally gets up but he accidentally dozed till my 5:00am alarm. I really wanted to get up at 5, but it was a little hard getting up, although hurting to lie in bed is a motivator to get up. So then I checked my email while still in bed, then got up and made the bed, then plopped on the floor and exercised. I have found I am most likely to exercise if I do it before I'm fully awake. I start with sitting stretches, etc., to trick myself into moving and by the time I'm finishing, I'm doing squats and then my coffee doesn't have such a big job ahead of itself. 

So there was an email in my inbox this morning from my ESV Bible app encouraging a 21 day reading challenge to start or re-start one's daily Bible-reading habit. Which reminded me that hubby picked a Bible reading program which we both wanted to do, that has bookmarks to put in each section with what you are supposed to read. He asked me to put Con-Tact paper on them so they wouldn't get destroyed. Those poor print-outs have been sitting on my dresser for at least 6 months. So I think I should take care of that today.

So, my friends, today remember to take a deep breath when needed, and thank God for each trial. --The laundry pile means you have clothes for your family and the sink-full of dirty dishes means you have been able to feed them. The little blessings that are the easiest to forget are sometimes the biggest blessings.

Day Off, Not Really

Well, my diet came crashing down around noon yesterday. We went out together to run some errands and ended up having hot dogs at Costco. I did not eat the bun and did not get a churro. I did have a mocha freeze and half a Mountain Dew. And a stomach ache. Then made Dutch Baby for dinner. So this morning I was determined to start fresh and exercised while the coffee was brewing. But Someone wanted me to bake one last batch of coffee cake and I am a softee and kinda wanted some too. So we had oatmeal for breakfast--gluten free, right? :) Still gotta go to the store for eggs...

Now I'm doing laundry and a general housecleaning trying to remove all the remaining germs from Boy being sick last week, especially considering the flu is so bad this year. We have avoided it so far, are not going to mall playgrounds despite the rain outside, and are trying to maintain a general atmosphere of healthy eating/exercising at home and with God's help will avoid this winter plague.
So I'm gonna eat generally healthy today and start fresh on the diet tomorrow. Sundays are a hard day to start but it will give me two days to get my body on track before going back to work.
TTYL!

Whole30, Day 1

So it's Friday, finally a day off. I work 4 days per week at a private practice, and have alternating Mondays or Fridays off, so this is my 4 day weekend.

I'm not feeling terribly inspired except that I want to say, I am starting the Whole30 today. Will I make it the whole 30 days? I will try. But my birthday is at the end of this month and while I do not plan to completely blow it, if I were presented with a lemon meringue pie, I would definitely eat it :)  So that would mean a restart but that's okay. Or maybe at that point I would switch to more of a long-term plan like primal or the such like. Basically, I have two goals:  The First being to get back in shape, and the Second being to get control of my endometriosis and hopefully get pregnant. Actually pregnancy is the motivating goal but feeling achy and old is definitely a driving force. My doctor, when I asked him if there was anything diet-wise or supplemental that I could do to help, he said, "No, there's nothing." and walked out of the room. While I know that there is nothing scientifically proven to help, there are a host of anecdotes of women saying that they had Stage 4 endo and yet were finally able to get pregnant while on the Whole30 diet. So although I do not like the idea of giving up dairy, I think it's worth a try. I already try to avoid glutinous grains mainly because they do give me a stomach ache and bloating and other miseries so that won't be so hard to give up. Hubby is and has for a long time been on a fairly low-carb diet anyway so breads haven't played much of a role in our diet for about 5 years.  I have pulled out my gluten-free cookbooks from when I did that 13 years ago, and of course the internet is ripe with bloggers giving me alternatives for breads on a low-carb or gluten-free diet, should I be craving such items.

So here goes Day 1. I got up late (6:15), did exercises while the coffee was brewing, and now I should really make breakfast so I don't get so hungry that I completely blow my chances.
Fried eggs with spinach, sausage, and berries.

How To Get Your Preschooler to Stay in Bed Longer, Please Don't Judge Me, and Other Thoughts...

One improvement in our lives around here is that Boy now "doesn't" get up till 7am. Seeing my post from a year ago about 5am and earlier, I am appalled that we didn't institute this rule earlier. But we did have psycho neighbors below us at that point and so I had to get up and let him get out of his room and keep him quiet watching TV to avoid getting the police called on us, or worse, the actual neighbors themselves pounding on our door at 5am (insert shudder and mitigation of panic attack here). So anyhow, I heard some friends with 3 year olds talking about a special clock they bought that has a red light and a green light and the light will turn green when they are allowed to get up and I thought "huh!". Boy has known his numbers for several years, why didn't I think of this before??? So I went to Walmart and bought a $5 digital alarm clock and put a sticker over the minutes and said, "See? when the clock says 7 you may get up." Now of course their are various reasons to get Mom up before 7--can't find one of his bots or cars or whatever he was trying to play with while waiting for the clock to turn 7. But mostly, the rule is followed. SO a few days ago, I got up a 6 and had coffee and watched I Love Lucy ALL BY MYSELF!!!! It was awesome. I do have my alarm set for 6 am on my days off, but I only get up then about half of the time. My theory is that as they say that people should keep their bedtimes fairly regular that since I get up on my work days at 4:45 and 5:30 there is not a good reason to get up past 6 on the other days unless I want to severely shock my poor sleep deprived body at 4:45 again the next week. 

Also, ever since leading up to my surgery my back pain has been getting worse. And by that I mean that I often cannot get out of bed in the style of a normal person in the morning. My surgeon said my endo was so bad that it may have been causing my back pain, but alas when I quit taking pain meds my back pain was right there waiting for me. So I started some yoga based on a friend's recommendation, then also ended up starting physical therapy. I've only had one PT session so far but the exercises are good. However I have been fairly regular and yet my back still seized up last night. So I think I gotta do yoga and PT. And as of 2 days ago my intestines have been trying to murder me. Dunno why, thought maybe it was the fast food (Sonic burger) I had Thursday night but it's Saturday and I'm still cramping up off and on.  Getting old sucks, especially when you're not old. So ya I gotta eat right and get in shape and not look back. Especially if I want to have another baby. 

So anyway, it's fall and school has started for most of the known world and I have been asked far too many times if my 5 year old is starting kindergarten this year. And man I get a lot of mixed responses when I say I'm homeschooling, even from church people. Now, I really do feel like homeschooling is the best option for him, especially since it seems his learning style is a very strong mix of kinesthetic and some visual. He is also very active and I'm pretty sure he would get kicked out of kindergarten or labeled as ADHD or something due to his inability (at this point) to sit and focus on books without someone sitting next to him keeping him going. He is not a follower and could care less if the rest if the class is sitting if that's not what he wants to do. Thank goodness his Sunday School teacher homeschooled her own little boy who was just like him and is not at all bothered by having to make him sit still! But you see, it's not ADD or ADHD, it's just lack of interest in certain things--he can play for hours with cars or trains or bots, but drawing letters is a little boring. So he needs something to help make it more interesting to connect with him as well as learn a little discipline about doing what we don't really want to do, and who better to teach him that than his own Mom and Dad who are personally vested in giving him the best tools possible for a good start in life? I know there are many awesome teachers out there and I have known many of them who I would be happy to have teach my child, however they have a class full of children to educate and cannot do "one-on-one" constantly with one child and still teach the rest of the class. So here goes...taking it a year at a time and praying for God's grace and guidance each and every day.  Seriously, how else do people think we homeschoolers do it? Some blissful ignorance of how easy it will be? Some notion that the kids will absorb the material? Well for the record, it is hard work and dedication to doing the best that we possibly can as parents for each child, along with the recognition that the method will look slightly different for each child. I should get off my soapbox now before I go overboard. Happy Saturday to all you Mamas out there! 

Cars, Surgery, Pancakes, and Other Fun Things

Ohhhh boy. So it's been over a year since I have been able to think much about my blog beyond a few mental compositions. I am sitting on the sofa talking to Lighting McQueen about the fact that Boy needs to watch more racing cars (his Cars movies). You see, apparently boys make requests to their mothers by having their cars make the requests. Some days I talk more to my son's cars/trains than I do to my son! Well probably not really, but it feels like that.

So anyway, my husband finally dragged me down to Best Buy and made me buy a new laptop. And then the Intel rep that was there found the exact computer that I wanted in a special sale display case of computers that were returned within the 14 day return period--fully tested and work perfectly but cheaper! Which made me very happy considering how much I loathe spending money on electronics.

So much has happened in the past year. We have moved to a new town, close to an awesome church and all our new friends that came along with the awesome new church. I am still working where I was before, which means I have to get up at 4:45 in the morning two days per week -- but I really like that office and have found a third day at another office that I love. So now I only work Tuesday - Thursday, no more crazy temp/fill-in schedule. we have been doing said crazy schedule for the last year and are soooooo relived that it is over!!! Anyway I am sitting here drinking my coffee and reveling in the fact that if the temp agency calls me to work today that I can say "NOOOOOOO"!
And then a month ago, very sadly, hubby's Grandmother passed away. She was 89 (almost 90) and had just found out she had stage 4 ovarian cancer, and she went to heaven just 2 weeks later. So now she is in perfect health with Jesus, which we are praising Him for, but we also still miss her so much. She was such a big part of our lives, it feels very strange.
The week after that, we flew to Reno for my brother's 30th birthday; his wife had planned a surprise party for him and managed to keep him completely in the dark through almost a year of planning! So that was a super bright spot after the very dark spot and it was awesome to have a weekend away seeing family, and Boy playing with his cousins. Even my brother who we haven't gotten to see since Boy was a baby came! He lives in the Midwest, so had to leave the 5 kids and wifey behind (can you imagine the airfare for that many people??!!) but we were all so excited that he got to come anyway!

Next up on the docket---middle next month I get to have surgery. "Get to?!" you say? Yes! As it turns out, after years of avoiding the fertility specialist, I finally went and he said I have severe endometriosis which is preventing pregnancy--if we can get most of it removed, I should be able to get pregnant fairly easily after that! So it will be an outpatient laproscopy, after which I will get to spend four days recovering -- lounging on the couch being a princess while hubby gets to do all the housework/laundry/kiddo care. See? It's definitely a "get to" situation :)

I guess that's it for today. I think I may attempt some coconut flour pancakes if I can talk myself into going to the store for eggs. However I'm still annoyed that I forgot eggs when I was at the store last night. So maybe we'll just have bacon for breakfast.

5am Trouble

How could anyone not smile at this face at 5am!?

Okay so disclaimer in case you think our Easter chocolates have lasted too long; I wrote this post just after Easter but then I tried to attach a photo but my iPad simply added ALL the photos in my photostream and I couldn't delete it. And it has taken me this long to sit down at my hubby's laptop and properly edit it. Anyway the 5am trend has pretty much continued except today it was 3:58am. LOL!!!!!!!!! (okay maybe I am too tired to care anymore...)

So I was awakened at 5am by a light coming from the hallway. And I would have taken a photo of what I saw if this was 20 years ago but with all the capabilities these days for people stealing our digital stuff without our knowledge I decided not to. And I was too irritated to take a pic of just the mess minus the boy. So anyway the first thing I see is that Boy is stark naked. Then I noticed that he had scooted a chair up to the fridge to procure some things I had stashed out of his reach, among which were the bubbles he got from the Easter bunny. A small area of the carpet in our hallway is now nice and clean due to the amount of soapy bubbles water that was dumped on it. I just put a towel over it and left it be, as I didn't figure there was any point to trying to clean that much soap out of the carpet. In the living room I found he had unwrapped quite a bit of his Easter chocolates and eaten a few, leaving the wrappers strewn about as evidence. I guess I should be thankful that he's not yet at the stage of hiding the evidence. Of course in his mind it was pretty logical, he got the bubbles down so he could dump the contents of one bottle into the next, which is tons of fun until you run out of bubbles to dump, and who doesn't love unwrapping colorful foil off of chocolates?!

And now my cute little troublemaker is over at the table counting some toys "how bout 11, then 12, woohoo! Then 16, then 18, 19, 20. Are they bees? They're kinda like yewwo". I love listening to him :)   Oh and I forgot to mention my main suspicion this morning--I'm pretty sure he has been up since he woke me at 3am with a wet bed. So here's to him taking a nap today! And if he doesn't, God help us all endure the forthcoming 4pm meltdown. Bottoms up on the coffee!

The 5am Club

So last week I came down with the dreaded whatever-is-going-around and was miserable all week, finally feeling relatively back to normal by Saturday. Combine that with hubby not feeling well and both of us trying to work, my house was dreadful. But I can safely say it is looking pretty well and lovely right now. It was already looking better by Saturday night, and then this morning hubby got up at 5:20 am for work, and I gotta say it was all I could do to drag myself outa bed and make his breakfast and lunch. However by the time that was completed I was pretty much awake; so between 6:10 am and noon I got the house picked up, vacuuming done, bathroom mostly shined, school done with Boy, deep cleaned under/behind the range in the kitchen, some mending done and of course breakfast and lunch eaten. Then I felt completely free to take a nap as soon as Boy went to sleep, because I got so much done which made 5am totally worth it. Except he's not alsleep yet. He is however this minute in the bathroom pooping on his little potty which is a great big hooray for me as this aspect has been such a struggle. I mean, how do you convince someone that pooping in his underwear is not okay who has done that business in his pants for his entire life???!!!

And now he's back in bed and I'm still hoping for a nap. We'll see.

Typing on my iPad...

Okay so to say life has bee a little crazy the last couple months is probably an understatement. Hubby started a new job in November and has simultaneously had some health problems to deal with. The dog got sick a couple times, Boy and I both got colds in December (I think it was then???) and then of course there was Christmas drama to deal with...and now Boy has been sick with fever off and on for the last two weeks. Yesterday morning when the fever came back again I called his doc and the nurse said it would be a good idea to have him seen at this point. So we took him to the evening clinic at 6pm last night (the first appt we could get) and the very nice pediatrician we saw said its hard to tell if he's just had multiple viruses back to back or if it's a sinus infection. We decided to get some antibiotics just to be safe and hopefully that will make our poor sick boy well again.

In the midst of all the sickness I missed Gal's Night Out with the church ladies last night and am missing the baby shower of one of the ladies in our Small Group this morning. I haven't even gotten to go buy her gift yet, that will have to wait till next week...

Just before Christmas Boy dumped my computer out of the chair he decided he wanted to sit in and it landed right on the charger cord where it was plugged in to the unit. So I no longer have a laptop, hence my disappearance from my blog...but I can only not write for so long, so am typing this with two fingers on my iPad screen. No, I haven't picked out a keyboard for it yet because electronics are basically at the bottom of my list of things to spend time thinking about or spend money on. Although considering the modern age we live in, I may have to adjust my priorities a wee bit.

On the bright side, potty-training is pretty much complete although he still does occasionally wake up wet in the morning despite the fact that we still do a diaper at night. Poor boy is a heavy sleeper like his Mama was...  Oh, and we have figured out what had made him so congested for the last two years, he is very allergic to dust mites! I gotta admit I was not thrilled with this information because I do keep a very clean house but apparently those critters live in even the cleanest houses. So I just gotta be even more thorough with vacuuming his room and wash/freeze anything he sleeps with weekly. Not much more than I normally do so not a big deal, just freeze the stuffed animals and whatever pillows I don't want to wash that often until I get some special pillow cases. It really has made quite a difference for him, until the last two weeks of him being sick...

Oh and I just remembered its Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's day to y'all and I'll see ya soon, hopefully not months from now again!   xoxo

The Distracted Mom Writer

Mom collected these leaves for me and I think they're so pretty with crystal and candles!

They say a true writer must always write; there is a type of compulsion this person has that prevents them from not writing. However, I disagree. There is another type of writer, the Distracted Mom Writer. This person is every bit as frazzled, has just as many compulsions to write, but this person is stuck in an alternate universe. This is a universe of being pulled in too many different directions; or maybe it is just one in which the poor lady is too much of a disorganized workaholic to actually sit down at the computer and put those thoughts on paper. This person constantly has thoughts of what to write about and what she would like to say swirling around in her head, but never actually makes it to her blog page to put those thoughts down. There is always something else she "needs" to do. Now, I know that many, many, many of the bloggers out there are Moms. They manage to raise 5 kids, homeschool them, write a book, can their own green beans and make their own yogurt and run a home sewing business on the side. Sometimes I have felt intimidated by them because I barely get one child homeschooled (although he is only 3 so not too much pressure yet), the house cleaned, and the sewing done that I need to do. I have thought multiple times about doing some sort of fun sewing business and selling on Etsy or Ebay or such, but I know I would probably experience a mental breakdown before I got very far. Why? I am the Distracted Mom (Writer, Seamstress, Housekeeper, Errand Runner, Cook, etc...). Emphasis on the "Distracted" part. I always find something else I need to do, often before finishing the 3 or 4 projects I already have started. But I just remind myself that there is nothing wrong with me, I am just different. I get my family fed, keep them in clean clothes, and keep the house clean (well, I keep it mostly dirt-free, "clean" is a relative point when you have children.).

Case in point: I have not finished the Christmas stocking I started for Boy before he was born, and I have not started the train quilt I said I would make him; I also have several small home decor/useful projects I want to do. However, today I am going to make a doll dress; my niece's birthday party is tomorrow (she's turning 2) and we can't go, but I still want to get it made today and put in the mail on Monday. Of course I came up with the idea of making it late yesterday. And that also reminds me I am going to try to make some Christmas presents this year and if I don't get started soon I won't get them done at all, which reminds me that Hubby said a couple of his new suit jacket sleeves are too long and I need to shorten them--he is awesome at scoring very expensive dress clothes at very low prices at thrift stores, but the downside is that I do a lot of tailoring. So there you have it, I think I have effectively wandered from the point of this post, which was going to be something along the lines of a comparison and contrast of different types of writers, maybe I will try that again another day :)

Life in September - Some days are crazy - This doesn't describe the half of it...

So I'm sitting on the bathroom floor saying "Are you done yet?" to a 3-year-old who would rather sit on the potty for an hour than go to nap...You know, potty training is much harder than I imagined. I mean, I figured that once he realized he didn't have to constantly have that stuff against his bottom all the time, and got the hang of going on his little potty that all would be fine. Now don't get me wrong--he wears big-boy underwear when we are home, and I haven't cleaned any accidents up in at least a week--awesome! And he has started telling me sometimes when he needs to pee. He usually only does his #2 business in his diaper at bedtime/naptime, so at least I'm not cleaning that up anywhere, but I'm not sure it is good for his little tummy to be waiting like that... 
On the upside, while he doesn't care as much as I would like him to about potty training, he really loves learning! He knows his shapes and colors and numbers and we are working on the alphabet. Every day he surprises me with something I didn't realize he had picked up on! So ya I'm trying to start preschool with the craziness around here. Hubby starting a new job--Yay!!!! I am trying to cram in my CE (gotta finish today) so I can renew my hygiene license today and I have several suit pants of hubby's that need to be tailored as well as some random paperwork we gotta get in for the new job.
And it is beginning to be cold outside--there is condensation on the living room window and Boy just said "Is messy? Clean wawer off?" and I got to explain condensation to him so I guess we have already got started on science this morning :)  I am so happy for fall to start this year, and I am already looking forward to Christmas. I really gotta get my random stuff done so I can get Boy's Christmas stocking finished this year.
And apparently I jinxed myself--just cleaned up an accident...oh well. Here's to Monday! (Raise coffee cup, gulp it fast, and go refill it!)