Validation

Today...Labor Day...my husband and I are mostly LAAAAZY. We spent the morning and some of the afternoon watching a "marathon" of Super Nanny shows. We are so addicted to this that it is sad and pathetic. What it does though is makes me feel like an AWESOME parent because our kids aren't even close to being as bad as the kids on the show. We kept hugging our kids and telling them how glad we are that they aren't like THAT. We also joked about putting them in the "Reflection Chair" (which I think is the Naughty Chair for kids who are above the age of 5) and then we talk about sitting on the "Conversation Couch" which is the place where a post "timeout" discussion is to be had. What at hoot!!!! I think my brain is numb with all the crazy antics that kids (and parents) exhibit in the households represented. Also..Jo Jo sometimes cannot pronounce words correctly and one time a little 8 year old girl kept correcting her (with a British accent too)...and it was comical. Anyway...I am definitely not "Mother of the Year" but I also am not one of "those" parents on Super Nanny...High Five to my husband and me!

Gratitude X 10

1. New School
2. Kids in said new school
3. Happy kids in new school
4. Free time to myself
5. Tidy house
6. "Successful" tie dyes
7. Husband's fun weekend in Atlanta despite the Hokies upset
8. Sunshine
9. Kids on bikes
10. Random thoughts

To Dye for

My daughter's soccer team is the GREEN VIPERS and they need new shirts this season. We parents don't really want to spend the 20+ dollars for the 'real jerseys' you can buy at the sporting good stores, so I decided to take it upon myself to figure this one out. Normally we buy a $5 shirt from Target that says soccer on it and call it a day. This year, they were sold out. So....I bought white t-shirts and have dyed them Chartreuse. I had intended to do white and chartreuse tie dye but all I accomplished was Chartreuse and Chartreuse. So...I went back out and bought purple die to try to add an extra element. I am known for liking to do "crafts" but I have never felt my products are stellar (the process is more fun than the product). So, I'm feeling a little nervous that the 10 Chartreuse shirts with purple swirls will look like 10 green shirts that red wine has spilled on (they have to dry over night all rubber banded up).

At some point I will pay each and every girl to say that they did the craft themselves. That would free me of any random stares from the "soccer moms" whose girls have fancy shirts (with their names on them), matching socks, and sweatshirts with their team name. We'll be deceptively "patched together" and then they'll witness our VIPER POWER on the field. Its not how you look its how you play...right? That will be the speech I will be giving the team next week when they get their "wine stained" soccer shirts.

In her shoes

It seems that every morning my daughter has a shoe battle. I feel that this battle has been going on since birth. What is it with her feet? Why are they so sensitive? AAAARGH. This shoe battle has been a daily issue this first week of school and one of the problems is that her feet have grown. She is nearing my size which is CA-RAZY...she is ONLY NINE YEARS OLD. If kids are like puppies, I'm thinking that she will be huge as she "grows into those feet" especially if they keep growing. One of the big issues for me is the "investment" in these shoes. I am convinced that the moment we plunk down our money for the shoes and wear them a week, her foot will have grown...and any good "worth wearing" shoe is at least $40 (and that is even rare). This week has been my incentive to take that girl out and buy a few pair of shoes THAT FIT and that don't have any random bump, knob, string that will hurt her foot.

I am tired of the battle and negative energy we start our mornings with...in fact this morning I said "bitch" under my breath because she was so mean to me about HER SHOES that I just couldn't take it anymore. She didn't hear me but I know she felt my frustration. It physically hurts me when she treats me with such rudeness, anger etc. I know I have to work on ME about this issue...but by golly, cut a mom some slack...I feel I work with good intentions to help make her life good and right and then she "slaps me" with her attitude and then I'm crushed. AND DON'T EVEN REMIND ME THAT SHE ISN'T A TEENAGER YET!

Game Night

Thanks to a Target advertisement my kids want to have game nights on Wednesdays. Even though I believe that my daughter is smarter than this...I think she thinks its like a National Day of Play. She announced that we "had to have game night on Wednesday nights" right after seeing the ad. So as part of her bribe for OPERATION TIMESTABLES, I said I'd buy a new game on WEDNESDAY (if she learned them before school started). She stuck with it and has it down 99% of the time. There are a few that still trip her up...but she essentially has them right. We are now the proud owners of "The Game of LIFE".

We played last night (Wednesday) and I forgot how fun it is. I love that there is very little strategy involved. There are board games that make me physically ill and I believe it is from the childhood trauma I experienced when my brainiac brothers would play Risk and Monopoly AND DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS (I had to do that in all caps because I just outed my brothers with their 'geek' factor). Anyway, being 4 years younger and much less wise (in a book smart way of course) I only witnessed this playing (ad nauseam) and I knew that it was an "outsmart outlast" kind of experience and that isn't me...NOT AT ALL.

So far we are one Wednesday into our new tradition. I have to say our family isn't very consistent with 'traditions' but if this one sticks...it is well worth it. That is a memory I'd love for my children to speak of when they're older...maybe it will erase the mean-crazy-lady-mommy experiences they had by the end of this summer.

The nerve of some people

Yesterday I was backing out of a parking spot in a pretty busy spot. I waited for tons of cars to go by and with a leap of faith, I looked back and started to ease out inch by inch. Well, someone had walked into my blind spot and then she appeared in my view as I continued to back out (slowly). I never hit her but BOY WAS SHE MAD. She gave me the stink eye and came to my window. I rolled down the window and apologized (and noted that she had walked into my blind spot). She glared some more and stormed off....that is when I felt compelled to yell out my window....

I SAID I WAS SORRY...silence

IT WOULD BE NICE IF YOU'D ACKNOWLEDGE MY APOLOGY...silence

PEOPLE MAKE MISTAKES......visions of her storming into a store.

My body was racing with all kinds of 'fight or flight' emotions as I drove off and then I kept thinking...

I sounded like such an idiot

Why did I think it was so important for HER to acknowledge ME?

I despise people who have chips on their shoulders

I'm SURE she has made the same/similar mistake before

I am still laughing at my reaction but also questioning...should she have been so mad? What did she expect to get from me when she approached my car? What was her intent...to spread her evil mood on me?

My final thoughts were...I need to slow down and be more aware both of my surroundings AND more importantly I think...how people's toxicity can rub off on me....I don't want others to have that kind of control.

In the meantime...I say to myself...shake it off!

What to do?

I am halfway through my first day without kids and I'm in a bit of a stupor. Don't even know what to write. I came home to find that somehow a tornado had blown through my house messing up pretty much every room in the house, so...I just got off my damage control job and will now do....I don't know...what to do?....I'm certain I have a list somewhere.