Mom vs. the Dot: Making it COUNT!

Are you familiar with the Hunger Games?  Whether you watched the movies or read the books, you may recall what it meant to be "A Career" when it was mentioned in this series of stories.  In the case of the storyline, it meant that certain people were chosen from a young age and trained exclusively to dominate and win in the Hunger Games, whatever the cost.  They were representatives of their community trained to do one thing - WIN!!  (at the cost of all others) When I think of being a Career Mom, the goals are not as easily defined.  I was not chosen when I was young to pursue this profession.  I was in my mid twenties when I first became a mom, and after the first few weeks, I thought: "Wow, this job stinks!"   There are no breaks.  There is no pay.  No pats on the back for a job well done.  Just sleepless nights, zombie days, and more and more work piling up with no end in sight.  I wondered, "Who in their right mind woul...

For weeks, I have had gallons of energy. Buckets even.  This is not normal for me, and I love it!  Summertime with its' warm weather and outdoor activities somehow turns off the lupus machine. But today, the switch toggled over to "on" and wouldn't you know it?  My tank was on "E" for hours. So naturally, it's grocery day.  Whee!! Basically, I feel like I have to flu.  Not sickness-wise, but fatigue-wise.  Kind of like the first or third trimester of pregnancy, when all you want to do is sit on the couch and wait until normalcy returns. So the troops and I headed out to the grocery store to see what we could do about restocking our pantry.  Even if I was having a bad day, we still needed groceries. Yup, it was one of those suck-it-up-and-go kinda days.  Thankfully, my oldest daughter, Aryn, loves to take on new responsibilities.  I handed her a quarter and she went and picked out the cart (or "buggy") and met us at the door....

We have endured our ugly wallpaper  almost 3 years now, and this week, we took action. Down with the vine-y wallpaper!! I normally love plants, but this stuff made me feel like vines were going to creep off the wall and grab me, like Kudzu.  Or that one vine from Harry Potter - Devil's Snare.  It grows rapidly and tries to suffocate you, unless you remember that it doesn't like light and blast it to smithereens with your magic wand. In preparation for wallpaper removal, I carefully took down our wall decorations, including our child's hand-drawn pictures that had been scotch-taped to the walls.  When we returned in the morning, we discovered I had missed one.  Yes, the flower drawn with Crayola markers on computer paper actually blended in with the jungle flowers.  We couldn't see an 8 1/2 x 11" piece of paper on the wall.  That's how busy this stuff was. Adios, crazy wallpaper!!   Well, anywho, my wonderful in-laws helped u...

Almost 2 years ago, we braved a winter blizzard to trek to the local pet store.  Our six-year-old daughter had been saving up her dollars and finally had enough to buy a hamster.  She wanted a pet so badly, and we thought a hamster would be a pretty safe first pet.  Low maintenance, doesn't eat much, just sits in a cage...so we said yes! How much trouble could a hamster be?  Besides, it was soooo cute! So, after following the pet store guy's advise, our daughter picked an adorable butterscotch-colored, long-haired hamster.  His little pink nose sniffled all the air holes on the way home, much to our daughters' delight. My husband carefully assembled the colorful plastic cage with all the cool trimmings with the "help" of our children (ages 6, 4, and 2 at the time).  They were even excited about putting the bedding in the cage and filling the cute little bowl with seeds.  The little water bottle was filled to the brim with fresh water. ...

What happens when you tell your child, "Don't touch that!!" Uh huh.  Same with our kids. So early in March, we were soaking in some fresh air and pseudo-sunshine today in effort to beat the winter blahs.  If it's gray and slightly bright, indicating the sun is trying to shine on Western Pennsylvania, it counts.  I decided it was time to clean off my kids' old play kitchen that had been in storage.  Spring might come soon and I wanted to have the kitchen ready for play when that blessed day arrived. That meant turning on the hose (that we left out in the yard all winter - yep - we're those people) and what do you suppose happened?  Well, first hose-shaped ice shot out in 3 to 4 inch pieces, then came a blessed gush of icy cold water.  I rinsed the storage dust off the little kitchen and wiped it down with paper towels. Meanwhile, my hose-crazed 3-year-old came by to investigate.  If he hears anything interesting - a drill, a hammer, or es...

So, the thermometer read 92 degrees outside and it was time. If you look closely, my thermometer says it's over 120 degrees - hmmm...may be time for a new one! After a long, cold winter and an equally long, dreary spring, Here it was.  The perfect day! I secretly hoped to fulfill a challenge given by Andy Stanley while my husband and I were at the Drive Conference in Atlanta a few weeks ago. What would a great mom do? Be a great mom! OK - I can do this!! So embraced the challenge and decided to do something about it.  Step One: I snuck down to the basement and filled up some water balloons, then began constructing a plan.  I'd get out the wading pool, water guns, and who knows what else?  What child doesn't love playing in the water on a blistering-hot day? So, as we ate our afternoon snack, I revealed my awesome plan to my children.  They were so excited that they ran upstairs and put on their swim gear.  Well, one of them did...

  We planned a trip to the zoo today with my sister-in-law and my niece and nephew. With high hopes and a packed lunch, we loaded into the car early in the morning.  As I thought back over the events of the day this evening, I thought,  there are really two ways to tell this story. We left home with 15 extra minutes of fudge time.  After following the zoo's not-so-great directions, I made a wrong turn, had to turn around in some Monroeville mega-traffic, then we wound around unfamiliar roads for a while.  A sweaty-palmed, white-knuckle ride if ever I've had one.  We finally pulled into the zoo 15 minutes late. The weather was gorgeous this morning.  I arrived 15 minutes late to the zoo, but my sis-in-law was patient with me because I often get lost.  We arrived amidst multiple field trips - a bazillion kids were everywhere.  I immediately became super-conscious of the possibility of losing my kids.  We trekked through the...