Good Friday Venting Session

March 30, 2018 / Pearls, Potatoes and Progeny / Leave a comment

Hello! Yes, unlike the Easter Bunny on his little hippity-hoppity way, I DO Exist!! It has been a crazy and hectic and all-around exhausting school year with the kids thus far. And I am not shy to say I am going slightly batty with all of it. Deep breath.

Life is good. I can’t complain about anything major. We are all in good health, Hubby’s job provides well for us, we have clothes and food and leisure time. Lots of blessings and things to be thankful for all around. I hate to be a complainer.

But….

…..Ugh. Sometimes I just need to VENT.

I have somehow gotten into the “thinking falacy” of believing that Everything Is (Or Should Be) Great. All. The. Time. Even if it doesn’t feel like it. Even if you are going slowly downhill after the drive to school, then the drive to ballet, then the drive home to make dinner then thirty minutes later the drive back to ballet to pick up the ballerina before dropping of the karate master at karate before driving home again for an hour of waiting to leave to pick up the karate master and then driving home again. And this all in the middle of a 45-minute production where the toddler hosts a massive and completely ridiculous screaming session in the car because I took away the pound of bubble gum she had “collected” from the minivan garbage can and the (not potty-trained, not trying) 5-year-old demands time on his portable video game for the 47th time today (…the answer STILL being surprisingly, “No.”) as the unmistakable scent of urine wafts up to me in the front seat. And then go to bed and repeat!!! And repeat. And repeat.

I haven’t vented to anyone in quite a long time because I don’t feel I deserve to vent. I feel like being frustrated with life is an inexcusable sin that a “good” person (especially a good mother) doesn’t get the luxury of feeling. I mean, I chose this life, didn’t I? I chose to have a bigger-ish family; to have 4 beautiful and special yet ofttimes extremely challenging children. I chose to live 30 minutes outside of the city limits, necessitating long and dull commutes rife with the opportunity for siblings to fight and every last one of them to take of his or her shoes and socks and make a “quick run to the store” a virtual impossibility. I chose to put my children in after-school activities that they seem to enjoy. I am not being forced to do any of this.

Motherhood, for all its joys, can just be plain hard sometimes. And it seems to be even harder when you don’t have a good outlet to vent. I have a few very close friends, but I don’t feel comfortable venting to them. Why is that? I know they won’t judge me for complaining about life. Maybe I feel it is that they won’t understand? Which is stupid because, even though their youngest children are older than mine, they have still been there! Of course, maybe it is also because most of my good friends (all with older school-age children, now) have gone back to a career and no longer seem as “desperate housewife-y” along with me as they once did. Their frame-of-reference has, quite simply, shifted. And I no longer feel as though I have that many friends who are “down in the trenches” with me.

Anyhow.

This being Good Friday, I should probably note that Lent has been a bust over here, folks. This year I started off with the best intentions (not going to give up anything, but add in daily Bible reading and rosary) but that fell by the wayside about three days in. I wanted to get the kids to Stations of the Cross at least once but realized yesterday that the last opportunity (not having partaken earlier like I had wanted) was today at 3. I suggested to the school-agers that I pick them up from school to attend, at which I received a steady stream of whining and complaining and then getting stuck at the grocery store with the two youngest who were fighting over “unicorn poop” (those pastel multi-colored mini marshmallows I intend to put on the Easter jello) at the top of their oh-so-shrill little lungs, I just decided that I COULD NOT HANDLE Stations of the Cross this afternoon as a good Catholic. Instead of focusing on the suffering of Jesus on His way to death, I would just be sitting there thinking about how much suffering I was enduring caused by my children elbowing each other maliciously through me (as I tried to separate them) and the negative effects of child self-applied sugar.

I ask forgiveness.

Sigh. Well, I feel better cyber-friends. I think the glass of wine helped, too.

Let’s try and make this more of a regular thing, shall we?

{7QuickTakes} in the midst of family dance party!!!!

February 24, 2017 / Pearls, Potatoes and Progeny / 2 Comments

So, it is Friday night and Hubby just called to say he has to stay late at work…ugh. So I sit here with a glass of vino and KidzBop playing on the iPhone while the kiddos run around like banshees. TGIF! Here’s some more excitement akin to the party over at Kelly’s.

ONE.

Not gonna lie, some days parenting is hard. Sometimes the kids are running around like banshees (oops, already mentioned that…mommy brain…) and you have a sinus infection and the LAST THING you wanna do is make another friggin’ peanut butter sandwich. But then oldest daughter has to do her reading homework and decides it is a good idea to read to younger brother while channeling her first-grade teacher at storytime. I had to smile. So cute.

TWO

I am not the most confident person in the world. Luckily, as an adult I have been nowhere near where I was in that regard in high school! However, I have been going through a rough patch lately. I am just feeling…I don’t know….frumpy and uncool. I think it has to do with it being February. Not a fan of this month. We’ve all been sick and stir-crazy and I am ready for spring! But I think that since I’ve been fighting negativity on that front it has come over to bite me on the confidence front as well. Nothing specific, just an overwhelming feeling of disliking myself. This, too, shall pass, I know.

THREE.

But…but…something wonderful has happened to my sweet younger sis! She is engaged! Yay! So happy for her and her young man. We are looking forward to a fall wedding.

FOUR.

Since I suffer from depression, I have always been worried about my children ending up suffering from those sort of things as well. My oldest, Junior, has always been extremely sensitive and intense. This year he has been suffering from panic attacks and seems to experience anxiety that is really hard to get a handle on. We have been in communication with his school counselor and she has been really great about teaching him relaxation techniques and just being available for him to visit with about his concerns. However, it is scary when he gets so worked up that he can’t calm himself down. He has especially been stressed-out this week about his upcoming karate testing and a school program where he has to memorize a speech. It is really hard for me, as a parent, trying to help him through dealing with this anxiety, especially since he is only in 4th grade! It seems too young to have the weight of the world on your shoulders.

My favorite stress relief: the sunset out my back porch:-)

FIVE.

Bellie sat and watched the entire 3-episode special of Rick Steves’ Travel Skills television shows with me. At first she was irritated that I wanted to watch that while I folded laundry (folding, which I hate…sometimes the only thing that gets me through is Rick Steves and wine), but then she was kind-of interested in the lovely locales Rick was visiting. I think she was most impressed with the tiny Swiss alpine villages. (I hope we can take the kids over there some day!)

SIX.

Oh the Trolls soundrack. We have moved on from KidzBop. Which I have something of an affinity for…I now have small ballerinas dancing to Anna Kendrick’s version of The Sound of Silence.

SEVEN.

I made a promise last weekend that I had to keep. It was hard.

I let my kids do painting.

It was stressful. It was messy. Spike dumped an entire water cup of green-tinted water on the floor but did not seem concerned in the least. I think they had fun. And that is what motherhood is all about.

I can’t resist making my children’s dreams come true.

Blessings for a great week ahead!

That darn perfection illusion

December 17, 2016 / Pearls, Potatoes and Progeny / Leave a comment

I apologize for my long hiatus…it has been insanely busy! Between a post-election trip to Washington D.C., Thanksgiving, Bellie’s third annual round of Nutcracker performances, Christmas preparations and the like, I have been swamped. But I promise to fill you in on all those adventures in due course. Life has been good, I have been staying upbeat, but wouldn’t you know it…once the kids finished school for the year and I was finally allowed a break I came down with the flu (flu shot notwithstanding!). It has been a fun three days of that but I think I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Right when I start feeling better I am sure the rest of the family will follow suit and get sick. Right around Christmas day, I’m sure:-) Oh well, c’est la vie.

I think I mentioned earlier that I have befriended a new-to-motherhood and new-to-the-area young lady who is married to a coworker of Hubby. We’ve been hanging out every few weeks or so; I have been introducing her and her baby daughter to the various activities available in our town for family fun/child enrichment. My younger kids get a kick out of hanging out with her baby, and I think she is genuinely appreciative to have the companionship. It is fun for me, too, to experience, through her, how far I’ve come as a mom. I mean, ten short years ago, I was that new, slightly uncertain and definitely appreciative for friendship – young mom. Several years later, I don’t know if I would claim that I’m an expert or anything…but I am WAAAAAAAAY more laid back and more confident (sometimes) about my parenting skills. Still, it made me dissolve in laughter when Hubby called me from work one day.

Hubby: [previously mentioned co-worker] told me his wife is super-jealous of you.

Me: What???!!!! Why???? (silently thinking, “Did she SEE my four-year-old eat that gum off the bathroom floor at playgroup?”)

Hubby: Yeah, she thinks you are like the perfect mom. She thinks the kids are always so well-behaved and you discipline them so well. And you always are on time and have your makeup and hair done when you guys get together.

Me: (Trying not to choke on my 8th cup of coffee that morning while the kids dump an entire box of cereal onto the floor) !!!! Oh my gosh!!! I have TOTALLY mislead her. That was not my intention.

Thinking back, I really was only trying to not scare her off with my frumpy slovenliness. Generally I am not on time, anywhere. And I don’t usually do my hair, but I thought I should put forth a little more of an effort with someone I am getting to know. (It’s weird how friendship with other moms is sort-of like dating. You want to put on your best face until you know you can relax a little around them in your own skin.) I certainly did not mean to make her think I was…Perfect.

Hubby to the rescue: It’s OK. I set [previously mentioned co-worker] straight. I told him that generally I come home to a house with cereal all over the floor and no one has gotten dressed for the day.

OK, that was once. But if it serves to burst the perfection illusion my new-found friend has developed about me, so be it. I don’t want to be seen as perfect! That is a lot of pressure.

I think women, moms especially, are set up for failure with the perfectionism thing. I mean, we start out young, unmarried and childless bombarded during our preteen and teen years with images on Cosmo and Vogue of these gorgeous supermodel/actresses and are convinced that is who we need to be (airbrushing be damned!). Our images of perfection may also be tied up in being the smartest, getting into the best college, having the most prestigious (and lucrative) career. We may spend hours on facebook and instagram looking at our friends’ “perfect lives”. Then, we graduate to the competitive mom-ing. Oh wow, that mom fits into her size-2 jeans and always looks like a million bucks, with her five beautiful children in tow who look like they stepped out of a Gymboree ad. And that mom volunteers for Everything at school. Isn’t she superwoman? Plus she holds down a full-time job AND is going to grad school at the same time! How is it possible this other mom keeps her home so immaculate with her two sets of multiples? I have never seen her with a hair out of place, and she’s always cheery and friendly. I’m sure her life is so charmed.

The danger in this “Projected perfectionism” thinking is that it tends to be a whole pack of bulls**t. People, no matter how hard they try to make outsiders believe it is so, are not perfectionistic automatons. There are happy, hard-working people who are living their best life, sure. But they will be the first (often) to admit that their lives are not “perfect”.

Just yesterday, my little group of best girlfriends was blindsided out of the blue with some information that left us stunned and devastated. A marriage we had always viewed as strong, a couple with a strong commitment to their family and community, had suddenly spiraled into a place none of us would have imagined. Domestic violence, safe houses, and divorce proceedings. The whole story is not immediately clear, but what an incredible shock for friends who have only ever seen the one face of their relationship. How could we have missed if something so dangerous was going on with our friend? Why didn’t she come to us for help before? I always had (and still do) look up to her for mentoring with my parenting. She was always so calm, so serene and so capable that I never would have imagined anything like this could happen to her. And as a couple, they completed our little group that hung out camping and doing fancy dinners. Our several families of combined children were good friends. We were all so happy together. I grieve for my friend and her family in this. (Prayers greatly appreciated on her behalf)

The lesson? Well, I could say “Try not to appear too perfect.” But, in reality, it might be more prescient to say, “Don’t assume anyone’s life is perfect.” Everyone has challenges. Everyone has things they keep hidden. If you suspect something with one of your friends that seems “off”, follow up. They may not be ready to share, but they might be able to tell you how to help.

Meanwhile, next time I get together with my new-mom friend and her baby, I think I will put her more at ease by showing up 5 minutes late in my sweats, leaving that grape jelly smeared all over my kids’ faces and regale her with the tale of the “Floor Donuts” (that delightful time I let Spike carry the dozen-box of frosted donuts to the register at the grocery store. He dumped them, the box came open, and all of them plopped juicily to the grubby floor, frosting side down. And before I could begin cleaning them up, Spike wipes his hand over the frosting-smeared floor and begins eating it the delicious goo.)

Who’s a perfect mom, now? 🙂

that-darn-perfection

{7QuickTakes}Weekly mishmash: Vol. 11

October 23, 2016 / Pearls, Potatoes and Progeny / Leave a comment

Well, here we are approaching the last full week of October! I can hardly believe it. Time is flying so quickly. Linking up with Kelly again for this week’s 7QTs.

~ONE~

My computer is boasting a sticky keyboard this week. Thanks to Evvie kindly spilling my coffee all over it. And I am too lazy to unscrew it and take the back off and clean inside it, so I am still using it while having to pressssssssssssssss (see?) really hard on some keys to make them work. It’s an occupational hazard, I guess.

~TWO~

We went to a local corn maze extravaganza on Friday night. The kids had a BLAST. Hubby and I (who are more antisocial homebodies) tried to keep those completely fake smiles plastered in place while freezing our hinies off as the kids insisted on running in four different directions while we we kicked ourselves for not bringing more than one flashlight.

~THREE~

I had the opportunity to volunteer at my older kids’ school on Friday. Since the public school system in Idaho is so poorly funded, classes like art and music have been cut. In my town, the elementary schools greatly rely on parent volunteers to teach “FAME” or “Fine Arts Mini-Experience” once monthly so that kids can be exposed to art history and music appreciation. I have been volunteering with this program for four years and I really enjoy teaching it. I am always really impressed with how well-mannered and inquisitive the kids are. One of the major highlights of this lesson (in which the art discussed was Grant Wood’s American Gothic) was showing the kids the different parodies that have been made of the artwork. I think the overwhelming favorite was a Star Wars-themed one where the farmer traded his pitchfork for a light saber.

courtesy the Art Institute of Chicago, artic.edu

~FOUR~

We babysat an 11-month-old baby girl yesterday. She was sweet, but a big girl! She was the same size as 21-month-old Evvie, and weighed much the same. Evvie has always been at the low end of the size spectrum. She’s growing, just seems to be petite. It was interesting to watch Evvie interact with a younger baby. Mostly she was just jealous because I was giving attention to another baby! The parents sorely needed a break, Hubby works with the dad, and they are new to the area and don’t know a lot of people. I sometimes forget how vital it is as a new-er mother to have other friends who are also traversing the journey of motherhood along with you. It sounds like this mom is very lonely for other mom friends. I am always so happy to recommend MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) to moms looking for that kind of connection. Just being able to check in a few times a month with other parents who have kids the same ages as yours and who can commiserate with the ups and downs of parenthood along with you is such a blessing.

~FIVE~

I recently had a friend diagnosed with breast cancer. They caught it early and her prognosis looks good, but she will still be in the throws of chemo for the next several months. She is young (36) and is married with two young girls. I have offered to help with whatever she needs, and I know she has many other friends doing the same. I have never had a friend go through this before, and am unsure what would be the most meaningful way to help. Any suggestions from anyone who has been there?

~SIX~

One of the best things about having kids get a little older is that you can pass on chores to them that you do not relish doing. Having Junior clean out my car this weekend was SO AWESOME! Of course he is not as thorough as I would be, but he vacuumed. He threw away trash. He put little trash bags by everyone’s seats to encourage them to throw garbage in there instead of on the floor. It warms a mother’s heart!

~SEVEN~

I recently discovered Overdrive from my library and have been having so much fun listening to audiobooks while I clean and do the dishes. It makes those chores go soooooooo much faster. I recently “read” (listened to?) the Ruby Red trilogy by Kerstin Gier…started out as a read for a book club but then I really got into it, even though I am not usually into the young adult/fantasy genre. But I absolutely loved the narrator. I love when you get a good narrator who does all the voices believably. The three books were a really good listen. Now I am listening to Z: a novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler.

image courtesy Amazon

~~~

That’s all folks, Have a lovely week!

Asking for what you need and guilt-laden “me time”

September 21, 2016 / Pearls, Potatoes and Progeny / 2 Comments

lovely image of Paris courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

I have been struggling with two main ~~emotions~~ ~~challenges~~ stumbling blocks lately. And they are guilt and my struggle to be assertive.

I struggled with this last month when my in-laws were visiting. I have been struggling with it this month while I try to plan my upcoming Europe trip, as well as take some much-needed “me time” in the form of my monthly Bunco get-together. Hubby, understandably, is resistant to the times I spend away from the family. It places extra burden on him and he really doesn’t get anything concrete in return. (One could argue a happier, more rested wife, but we’ll get back to that in a minute…)

Things came to a head last week when I was discussing the aforesaid European trip with Hubby, complaining that there wouldn’t be enough time to comfortably see EVERYTHING, and he suddenly said, “I am not sympathetic; I am not supportive of this trip in the first place.”

Wow.

I was thrown for a loop. Here I am, glibly planning this two week trip for next summer with friends and – heck- we’re almost ready to buy plane tickets, when Hubby suddenly brings to my attention the fact that, ahem, he is not supportive of this trip. I admit I never really asked permission to take this trip with friends -a trip that I have been saving both my money and airline miles for. I had, at first, mentioned to Hubby that we take a trip together, just the two of us. I suggested Alaska, a place Hubby had always wanted to see. I figured out a little itinerary (Denali! Kenai Fjords! A fishing charter!) and asked my sister if she would be willing to come out to Idaho to watch the kids while we were gone. I had it all planned, and presented the plan to Hubby on his birthday.

The response was not as I had expected. He replied that he didn’t want to spend that kind of money, that his idea of an Alaskan trip was much different than my idea of an Alaskan trip (think flying into a remote North Pole-ery location and rustic camping/fishing for a week) and he reminded me that we don’t travel well together. (Which is true, we have very different traveling styles). I told him that we had enough airline miles for both of us to fly to Alaska for no cost. He said, “I’m sure you’d rather go to Europe with those miles.” And I said, “Yes, actually I would. Can I go to Europe with those miles if you really really don’t want to do Alaska with me?” And he said yes. So I really really thought he was completely OK with me going to Europe next summer.

After the conversation (the one where he said he wasn’t going to support my trip), I was wracked with horrendous amounts of Guilt. Who was I, thinking that it was completely OK to ditch my young family for a couple of weeks, leaving my poor frazzled husband to deal with them? Who was I to make my husband take vacation from work to watch the kiddos while I gallivanted around Europe while he was forced to stay home and be stressed out? Why did I think I deserved that? What if something happened to the kids while I was gone? What if something happened to me? How selfish was that? How selfish was I?

While I kept trying to make sense of my emotions regarding this I tried to ascertain exactly why Hubby said he was non supportive. What he had said was he wasn’t supportive of my trip. What I heard is that he wasn’t supportive of me. When I asked him to clarify, he said he thought the expense of travel was too great and that he didn’t believe I would be able to save enough money beforehand to finance my trip. He also was unhappy about having to take work off, using up valuable vacation time that he would rather use for….um, vacation. He also was worried for my safety, in light of the terrorism that seems to run rampant in Europe these days. Additionally, and perhaps a little “selfishly” on his part, he was jealous. When had he gotten to take a two-week trip with his friends? I reminded him of the cool locations he had traveled to for work (Sweden, for example). Also, I reminded him that I had tried to get us to plan a trip to Alaska, a #1 bucket-list item on his agenda, but he had declined.

Nevertheless, even after finding out the reasons for my husband’s reluctance to this trip, I still felt guilty. I assured him I would try even harder to save money. I would sell stuff I was no longer using on ebay. I would pare down my spending. I also assured him I would try to figure out childcare options for while I was gone, perhaps hiring someone or seeing if a family member would come out to provide babysitting. I can’t do anything about terrorism or crime except to keep alert and stick with my traveling companions, and I told him I would be supportive of any travel scheme he came up with in the future – with or without me. But the guilt remained.

As a wife and a mother, and especially as a woman of God, we are taught the intrinsic value of sacrifice. We sacrifice for our spouse. We sacrifice, especially, for our children. Our sleep, our time, our energy, our bodies. We are happy to do it because our families are worth it. No one wants to be that mom or that wife who selfishly puts her wants ahead of her family’s needs.

So when, if ever, is it OK to say “Time Out! I need to focus on my needs a little bit. And they might look like ‘wants’ to you, but believe me, THEY ARE NEEDS!” Like rest and rejuvenation. Intellectual and cultural stimulation. Exercise time. Heck, a shower!

I guess, ultimately, I don’t want my kids to look back at me during their childhood as a woman who had no identity except that as their mother or their father’s wife. I want them to see me as a dynamic, interesting, and joyful woman who sacrificed for them but never forgot to take time out for herself. I don’t want them to remember me as bitter and frustrated and failing to be a person in my own right. I also don’t want them to remember me as a woman racked with guilt over following my dreams.

That said, I am forging ahead with the planning for my Europe trip. I will try to come up with ways to make the time I am gone (and the expense) less painful for Hubby. I am sure I will continue to struggle with feelings of guilt, but I need to focus on the actual goal which is to create enough joy that I come back to nurture my family even better. One can’t feel guilty about that.

{7 Quick Takes} Thoughts on Hamilton, “pretend school” and memory

September 9, 2016September 7, 2016 / Pearls, Potatoes and Progeny / 1 Comment

Hello, gentle readers…hope your week has been lovely. Linking up again with Kelly to let you in on what’s been happening around here…

ONE

hamilton_twitter

I am sort-of behind the times, but just recently discovered and immediately jumped on the Hamilton bandwagon. I’ve been listening to the soundtrack on Amazon nearly non-stop for a few weeks now, and I love it.

I was a history major in college and I always thought, reading about Alexander Hamilton, “what a stud!” first, but then, “this guy was the epitome of the American Dream”. He rose from illegitimacy and poverty to become one of the most influential of the Founders. He had such a fascinating, nuanced life and that’s why this musical really excites me.

Plus, the hip-hop? That’s pretty darn revolutionary for a Broadway show about an 18th Century Federalist. It could have been a tired, classical story about an interesting guy, but Lin-Manuel Miranda does such great things with his writing that it makes the early days of America fresh and exciting. And relatable. Which is a complaint I think a lot of young people have about the study of history.

(Why do I have to learn about this? What does it matter to me? These people in the past are nothing like me, they have nothing in common with me.)

Miranda took it a step further and cast people of all ethnic backgrounds as the central (historically Anglo-Saxon/white) characters. And it is brilliant. The story transcends race and gender and solidifies the fact that no matter our backgrounds or ethnicity, ALL AMERICANS have a right to the heritage of our nation. And that is just fabulous.

Plus, the music is super-catchy. If you haven’t, I encourage you to check out the soundtrack (even if you’re not a musical fan…this one might change your mind!). If you’re waiting to see it on Broadway, it is probably going to be a long wait – it’s basically sold out into 2018!

Alexander Hamilton (left) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (right) as Alexander Hamilton

TWO

The older two started school Aug 28th. I had to laugh at Bellie (1st grade) when she came home after that first day. It was an excited, breathless, stream of consciousness about eating lunch at school and riding the bus with her brother and seeing her friends and she loves her teacher and she got to help in the library and she used her new pencils and she loves her teacher did she tell me she loves her teacher? And Junior (4th grade) came home and grunted “fine” when I asked him how his first day was. Haha, the difference between boys and girls. (Or 1st and 4th grade?)

THREE

I attempted to begin homeschooling my preschooler on Tuesday. I had tried to get him excited about the prospect (We did not enroll him in “away from home” preschool this fall because A) at almost 4 he is showing a stubborn lack of interest in being potty-trained and B) I really don’t want to have to shuttle anyone back and forth to a 2-hour preschool when it takes me 1 hour round-trip to get there. This is my one year to be free from that!). Anyhow, I told Spike that I was going to teach him at home. He responded, “I get to go to pretend school? Yay!” Initially, I thought, that’s cool he calls it “pretend”, I know it is real, and it will be awesome. Well, it turns out he really thought we were only going to “pretend” we were at school. I barely got through the morning prayer and the pledge before he got sidetracked and started throwing a fit about playing with his Lego car. I tried to lovingly refocus him, I attempted to move onto something I thought he would enjoy (coloring), I finally resorted to giving him a time-out. He sat on the steps screaming, “I hate pretend school! I don’t want to do pretend school any more!” So I decided we would probably just take a break for the day. I don’t want him completely hating it if I push it on him. I vow to try it again next week. I will keep trying for a bit but if it appears he is just not ready, perhaps he might not be. I will keep you updated.

FOUR

The baby has some weird skin thing going on. It looks like a rash or maybe psoriasis, is mostly on her chin and around her eye. It looks very dry and red and patchy. The only thing I can think of is it appeared around the time the kids were doing swimming lessons last month. So perhaps a reaction to the chlorine or something? It has been a couple of weeks since we’ve been swimming, though, so I don’t know what is going on. Junior had some weird eczema around that age that eventually subsided, but this appears different. I hate skin conditions in kids…one thing can look very much like another thing. Something serious that needs treatment can appear just like something else that only needs to be washed with a gentle soap and moisturized. It could be a reaction to some kind of detergent or it could be an allergy to some kind of food. In that case, it can take months to figure it out while removing and adding stimuli to the child’s life. Gaaah. At least it doesn’t seem itchy or bothersome to Evvie. She just looks somewhat ghastly.

FIVE

Our garden is overflowing and I couldn’t be more irritated. I know that sounds totally awful, but it is true. I love the idea of gardening. I like having fresh herbs and lettuce to pick when I am making a salad or cooking and need just a little bit of parsley instead of running to the store. But…but…even when you plant just one, little, teeny zucchini plant you somehow wind up with 5,634,592 zucchinis that you need to figure out what the heck to do with! I have at least 3 friends who begrudgingly took one or two to make zucchini bread. Hubby’s been cubing it and sautee-ing it with butter and Parmesan cheese (yummy actually, but not when you have it served for every meal for every day for a month!)

We have tomatoes and plums and really hard, not delicious pears strewn all over my counter. The fruit is not so bad: the kids eat it constantly. Unfortunately, those children still in diapers (I’m looking at you, Mr. I Hate Pretend School) tend to bless me with delightful pants to change after consuming all of that fiber. Hubby was raised with the Depression-Era mindset (I am pretty sure he is actually a vampire who grew up in the 30’s) that you use EVERY LAST available piece of food for SOMETHING, no matter how ugly it is, how full of worms it may happen to be (yeah, our apples didn’t do so well this year), or how bad it tastes. If it is not rotting or full of mold, you better dang well figure out some way to cook it, freeze it, or preserve it. Of course, since Hubby is at work all day, this generally gets “intended” my way….and I honestly have tons of things I would rather be doing. Hence the resentment over my bounteous garden. I am blessed.

SIX

I have to go to the library today. My kids love the library. I love the library. But I hate going with my kids to the library.

SEVEN

I am reading this fascinating (although a little technical) book: Permanent Present Tense: The Incredible Life of the Amnesic Patient, H.M. by Suzanne Corkin (2013).

1366217145corkin-permanent_present

I became interested in this subject because a new nonfiction book about the same thing was recently published:

bookreviewpatienth-m-d7692-245x350

My library hasn’t acquired this new book yet (Patient H.M. by Luke Dittrich, who is the grandson of the brain surgeon who operated on H.M.) but a search led me to the other one.

Permanent Present Tense tells the story of Henry Molaison, a 27-year-old epileptic who underwent an experimental surgery in 1953 to remove part of his brain in order to relieve his seizures. It seemed to work somewhat, but tragically included the added side-effect of Henry never being able to create any long-term memories. His life really was in “permanent present tense” as he forgot everything after about 30 seconds.

As a result, for the next half-century, Henry agreed to be studied by neurologists to discover the intricacies and nuances of the brain.

Fascinatingly, only Henry’s long-term memory of things after his surgery was affected. He could remember things from before, and his intelligence and personality remained the same.

Henry passed away in 2008, before that, he was only referred to in scientific circles as “Patient H.M.” He contributed greatly to our understanding of how the brain works, most importantly memory.

I have always been very fascinated with the brain and the history of how brain injuries and mental illness have been treated. In the first part of the 20th Century, lobotomies were considered appropriate and acceptable treatment for a wide range of conditions, among them depression and schizophrenia. They were used, with some success, on patients with epilepsy, but up until recently doctors were not sure precisely which areas of the brain were able to be removed or damaged to yield results without damaging other brain functions (such as memory).

I’m only about half-way through but am engrossed. I feel devastated for Henry and his family to have to have enriched science and medicine through their loss, but it really did open up a whole knew era of understanding about the brain. Alternately, the book calls into question the lengths we as a society are willing to experiment on human “guinea pigs”(drug trials, for example) to further our goals to find treatment for disease.

Depression taking over my life

August 6, 2016 / Pearls, Potatoes and Progeny / 1 Comment

OK, so I clearly haven’t been on here for awhile. I have been busy, true, but I wouldn’t be completely honest with you if I didn’t admit that I have been having quite some time keeping the negativity at bay. There have been a few days-long stretches where I could barely get out of bed. And I blame myself and heap oodles of self-hatred my way, saying that I should try harder and that I need to ignore my feelings and just be there for my children and my husband. I feel guilty and awful most of the time, paired with debilitating anxiety. Hubby, although he tries extremely hard to be understanding and supportive, is understandably frustrated and overwhelmed with dealing with our crazy household (the kids don’t stop) as well as a spouse who wants to check out most of the time.

I don’t exactly know what set it off. I am feeling overwhelmed with the task of housekeeping and motherhood right now. I am tired of barely keeping up with the mess and the needs of five other creatures (eight, if you include the pets). I am exhausted with not being enough. I crave the delicious feeling of accomplishment – of feeling pride in a job well-done and the satisfaction of being competent at a task. Motherhood doesn’t offer this emotion….not really, anyhow. The task of raising a child is never done. Even when they are adults – they could screw up badly and, as a parent, you will always wonder if that failure of theirs is somehow tied to your failure to feed them organic meat.

When I was younger, unmarried and childless, I was an organizational freak. I loved having everything neat and tidy, everything in its place. I thrived on making my space beautiful and having my decor reflect who I was and what I loved. I think that is why, now that I am part of a household with young children, I become so discouraged with the state of my surroundings. These surroundings are messy. They are dirty. They are disorderly. They are ugly. I could spend every second following my children around, yelling at them to pick up, to not take that out, to leave my stuff alone, but that would still probably not achieve my desired goal: to have a beautiful and orderly and calm place to call home 24/7.

Readers will argue that having a home-design-magazine-worthy home is a silly goal while being a SAHM to youngin’s – that they are only young once, and energy and time should be spent playing with them instead of worrying about the amount of mess they make. I would agree. But perfectionism and depression are filled with a font of irrational thoughts that don’t make sense and obsessively spin around in your mind making you feel that there really is no point and you might as well give up.

So, this last month I really have. I have dropped the ball on housework, I have let the kids watch day-long marathons of Netflix, and I have essentially checked out. Occasionally I have been able to summon enough gumption to cook dinner or do laundry. I still run the kids to lessons and play-dates and if any of my friends ask I am doing JUST FINE. But I am locked in a gloom that is very difficult to shake.

We took a family vacation last week and I was able to get outside of myself and just be for a few days, which was nice. But coming back home was hard, getting back to real life was hard.

I go through something with my medication every two years or so where the normal dosage suddenly just doesn’t cut it anymore. So I am starting a supplemental medication along with my normal prescription. I am hoping that there is an improvement. Generally, I have always felt that before the positive thinking and self-care suggestions my doctor and psychologist have suggested can kick in, there needs to be a biological “jump start” in the form of drugs in order to to be able to move forward. And I feel like the current dosage is no longer cutting it. I worry that by the time I am 60 I will be taking such an inordinately large dosage of psychotropic prescription drugs that I will no longer, chemically, be me. Or that after so many years of taking antidepressants my brain will be severely damaged or I will develop a giant, inoperable tumor thanks to the miracle drugs that have gotten me out of bed and into the land of the living for 40 years. But I suppose it will have been worth it. Not living under a constant, debilitating cloud of depression is worth it. I think.

So that’s what has been going on. I am hoping to check in more often going forward. I am hoping I will have happier, more sunny things to write about next time. I know I will be fine, the sky is not falling, and life is actually beautiful. I know all of that. I just need a little help (and prayers) getting to the point where I can really feel it, too.

Thanks.

{7Quick Takes} Weekly mishmash Vol. 7

June 26, 2016 / Pearls, Potatoes and Progeny / 1 Comment

Just trying to keep the summer from getting away from me…

I’m having a tough time with Summer. I always tend to start out the summer vacation with great gusto (“Let’s paint! And go to the library!”), but end up in a puddle of motivation loss by about day 3. I think the kids seem to sense that they are treading on emotionally-fragile Mommy ground (with their mother one ridiculous kid-bickering-argument away from GOING INSANE) and it only serves to ramp up their noncompliance with the rules and their inability to help with housework. Gaaaaaah! Anyhow, here’s what’s been going on at Crazy Town:

ONE.

Massive Monster Meltdown on Monday (how’s that for alliteration?). We got to town for Bellie’s t-ball game and she suddenly gasps and announces, “I forgot my shoes!” To be fair, I had reminded her to grab her mitt and water bottle, but, silly me…forgot to remind her about bringing shoes. (And six-year-olds have a lot on their minds so I should never assume shoes are a given) Now, I know a parent with a more “tough love” approach would have just said, “sad” and made her play the game in her stocking feet, but we had a little bit of time to kill so I ran to Walmart and grabbed some cheaply made slip-on Frozen sneakers off the shelf. 100_9233

Shoes? We don’t need no stinkin’ shoes!

Trying to get out of there instantaneously, I was pushing that shopping cart like a bat out of hell and making my way to the register without pausing for anything. The 3-year-old, Spike, had other plans. For some reason every single Paw Patrol-themed item Walmart had for sale was on an end-cap at the exact height of my preschooler. And, being a preschooler, he wanted every single item. So, I arrived at the check-out with said preschooler under my arm while he proceeded to kick and scream “I WANT IT ALL!!!”

After paying (which is not the easiest feat while wrestling a 35-pound tornado and a baby who is trying to press the buttons on the credit card machine) and congratulating myself for getting the purchased shoes and kids to the car, I attempted to buckle Spike into his booster. He wasn’t having it. He wasn’t having it so much that I am pretty sure I almost popped a blood vessel from yelling at him (not my proudest moment). Bellie had about 5 minutes to get back to her game, and I finally was able to wedge Spike into his seat and buckle him. Victory.

Not so fast, momma. We begin to exit the Walmart parking lot and Spike has unbuckled himself and proceeds to thrash around and scream, “I don’t want to be strapped! I don’t want to!” So I come to an abrupt halt on the side of the road (I am pretty sure the drivers behind me were shooting me CMD looks – “Crazy mini-van driver”) and, my patience wearing very thin, I swatted Spike’s behind, threw him back in his booster and strapped him again.

Two seconds down the road later, the little monster is unbuckled again. We repeat the previous paragraph. Except this time I am screaming, “YOU NEED TO STAY BUCKLED IN YOUR SEAT OR YOU. WILL. DIE!!!!!! IF WE GET IN AN ACCIDENT YOU WILL FLY THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD AND YOU WILL DIE!!!!!! HORRIBLE HORRIBLE THINGS WILL HAPPEN TO YOU IF YOU DON’T STAY STRAPPED AND YOU.WILL. DIE!!!!!” I have gone completely off the rails this time and we are in a residential neighborhood and I am pretty sure people are on their phones calling Child Protection or the Behavioral Health Center and telling them a mom in a minivan is losing her mind and could you send somebody quick, perhaps with tranquilizers?

Well, this scares Spike into a stupor (although I don’t think he has much of a concept of life or death or flying through the windshield but I think the kid is terrified that he has made his mommy absolutely unhinged) and we proceed to the game in silence. The other kids are also maintaining a shocked quietude but probably thinking, “I’m glad I’m not the one who ticked Mom off.”

I hope Bellie learned her lesson about not forgetting her shoes next time.

TWO.

After that disastrous day, I took Junior and Bellie to the circus that was in town. (As in, a professional circus. Not the circus that is my home.) I hadn’t been to a circus since I was a kid myself and it was fun. The kids really enjoyed it. They perform it outside at a racecourse in town, and the most hilarious thing happened during one of the acts. There was an animal trick show with a camel, two horses, and two miniature ponies. All was going well until the ponies decided, “Heck, we’re tired of this performing-for-treats stuff. We want to fulfill our dreams of being racehorses.” And they broke free from their ring and started hoofing it down the track. They made it almost all the way around before a couple of handlers thwarted their thoroughbred dreams and wrangled them back to where they belonged. But it was very entertaining.

THREE.

Yay! We spotted some more animal feces!

The whole family went for a hike last weekend. It was nice, but at the beginning Bellie and Spike were complaining about being tired and not wanting to walk. The incentive I came up with? Poop. I told them to keep an eye out for horse or elk poop on the trail. I am proud to report that this was the motivation that kept them going.

It’s always a good idea to stop, kick off your shoes, and take a break half-way through a grueling 10-minute hike.

FOUR.

Potty-training is stupid. This is what the 3-year-old says and I am inclined to agree with him.

FIVE.

Brexit. I am intrigued by this. I don’t know if it is good or bad, but if the pound stays down I am kinda wishing I was going to England this year. Needless to say, being a nerdy historian, seeing echoes of the isolationism that happened prior to WWI. Just curious to see where this all leads…

SIX.

I am pretty sure that if I could find someone to grocery shop and cook for me I would probably be in a state of bliss most of the time.

SEVEN.

Someone in here is poopy so I should probably go figure that out.

Have a great week! 100_9260

{7QuickTakes}Weekly mishmash, Vol. 6: School’s out for the summer edition

June 3, 2016June 2, 2016 / Pearls, Potatoes and Progeny / Leave a comment

Today is Day One of summer vacation in this house. So far, so good….but it is only 7 am. While I listen to the sweet silence of my children getting along for the last few minutes before all hell breaks loose for the following three months, you can read along and hear about what we’ve been up to lately. (Stop at Kelly‘s for more cool happenin’s)

ONE

As we walked through the garden the other day and I attempted to weed, Bellie and her little brother were inspecting their plots. Noticing that a few areas had teeny tiny sprouts growing, Bellie said, “Be careful, Spike! Don’t touch them!” Spike paused thoughtfully, then said, “Right. Because we don’t want them to grow back down.” It made me think of the Wizard-of-Oz when the Wicked Witch of the East got crushed underneath Dorothy’s house; her striped legs rolling back up under it like a party horn. Definitely hope that doesn’t happen to our vegetables! The kids do like to “see” with their hands.

dusty, dusty garden patch

TWO

Bellie was making a card for her friend’s birthday party and wanted to know how to spell said-friend’s name. “P-A-I-G-E” I said. “What?” she said, incredulously, “I don’t think so. Isn’t it ‘P-I-G? [she says, trying to sound it out] ‘” Now, she is a newly graduated kindergartner and I generally encourage her to use “kindergarten spelling” where she sounds out words and comes up with the spelling herself, but I think on this occasion I will just spell that one for her!

THREE

Little Evvie is getting to be quite the explorer. Running off during school programs, deciding she’s had enough at church and marching down the aisle. Making friends of other similarly-aged babies and deciding to join their families at library story time. Also the bathroom and kitchen drawer spelunking. I have been trying to avoid putting those annoying child locks on the drawers but I think I might just have to pretty soon. Especially after every single one of my feminine products found their way on to the floor of the living room and Spike is joining in the fun by adhering them to my bookshelf and asking if “these things are airplanes because they have wings”.

FOUR

They just cut the alfalfa field behind our house. Mmmmm…one of my favorite smells. I love how everything is so green around here right now – we just got done with several weeks of unseasonable rain and it has made our normally-desert dry neck-of-the-woods a verdant paradise! At least for a little while longer. Since we have moved some of our trees to the opposite side of our yard and put up a bird feeder, we have seen so many more birds in our yard and I love it! We showed the kids a robin’s nest in one of our pine trees and I always forget how brilliant blue the eggs are. I love early summer.

The deep purple is so velvety…

Yummy alfalfa

Fushias! I love them!

FIVE

I am trying to come up with a system for Kid Media Time this summer. Ugh. I hate hate hate hate hate having to deal with this. I would be content if our tv and computer just broke (well, not my computer, I need some sort of lifeline to the real world!) and the kids would be content to just be kicked outside and play in the dirt all day. And I guess a Media Moratorium is a possibility for the whole summer, but I fear a mutiny and occasionally rain and 2nd-degree sunburns necessitate a day or so indoors. Being “SOOOOOOOOOOO bored”. My issue is that I find difficulty policing the actual time spent on media. The computer isn’t a big deal. Junior gets an hour/day based following completion of household chores. It’s the TV. Because the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines say “Children and teens should engage with entertainment media for no more than one or two hours per day, and that should be high-quality content” I am trying to only allow another hour or two for television/tablets. My kids obviously do not like the same TV shows, being vastly different ages. So what happens when Paw Patrol is on for Spike, but Junior is in the same room passively watching it? Do I count this against Junior’s Media Time? Does each kid get his/her own quota for time? Or do I just say TV can be watched from 8-10 am and each person gets to pick a show? What happens if we watch a movie in the evening as a family? I would love to hear readers’ thoughts on this; particularly what worked or didn’t.

SIX

As my shoulder saga continues, I think we may have made a discovery: I HAVE BAD POSTURE. After holding babies (incorrectly, I wager) for nine years and lugging around car-seats and other miscellaneous child-rearing paraphernalia akin to a pack animal, my normal posture resembles that of a hunchback. I have to constantly remind myself to sit up straight, shoulders back. My chiropractor recently tried using this kinesiology tape on my shoulder, mainly to remind me to keep my posture healthy and it has made a difference! So going forward we will see if this makes a lasting impact.

It’s a good look for summer.

SEVEN

Hubby and I are set to celebrate anniversary number 12 on Sunday and I am so excited for the gift I am going to present to him! Twelve years of marriage is traditionally celebrated with linen or silk apparently but what the heck do you get a guy that’s either of those things? I thought silk boxers but they sound somewhat impractical and hand-wash only. So I got him this gorgeous handmade fly box for when he fly fishes. It is customized with his favorite run and the “river” is inlaid with turquoise. I really love it, I hope he does too! Thanks Mike at Snake River Nets for the fabulous box!

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Ta ta for now, have a great weekend!

The purpose of a bad day

May 31, 2016 / Pearls, Potatoes and Progeny / 2 Comments

Not often, but occasionally, I have days that hit me with the enormity of the fear that maybe, just maybe, all my struggles and triumphs and day-to-day banalities are all for naught. That it doesn’t really matter if I live this day well, or try a little harder to get that task done, or remember to curb my tongue of the petty criticisms that may make my daughter cry. Why would it matter, if life is indeed pointless, whether I were a good mother to my children, faithful and loving to my spouse, or tried to be a good neighbor to my fellow man? What would be the point, even, of getting out of bed?

I have a tendency to be over-sensitive to other people’s moods and attitudes, and today was a poster day for that. My mother, meaning well, sent me a light-hearted text about how she just saw the State Department had issued a travel warning for Europe, citing terrorist fears. She knows that I have been beginning to plan for a trip to Europe with friends in 2017, and she knows I am excited and have been furtively sneaking away from my kids to Google search hotels and tourist sites in anticipation of this journey. So while I appreciate her concern (and, really, do I think the threat of terrorism anywhere will decrease in the next decade or so?) I didn’t see how this benign text added anything of a positive nature to my day. In fact, it sort-of depressed me. Yes, it is true. Yes, it is scary. But…why share it with me? Was her goal to scare me? Or to let me know she was worried for my safety in some way? Whatever her intent, the text irritated and depressed me. It seemed almost a subtle way of saying, “I know you have this fun plan for your life, but guess what? It is raining on your parade. Right now. You can’t win, so don’t even try.”

I got through the rest of my crazy day with the kids and karate, and came home, proud of myself for having prepared a crock-pot minestrone so we could eat right away after getting home at 6:30. I grabbed the mail and saw that some travel guides I requested had arrived; we want to go to the West coast this summer for vacation. Excited about that, I mentioned it to Hubby, who I instantly realized had arrived home under a cloud of crabbiness. He said, “I don’t even want to talk about vacations. The new company [who is taking over operations at Hubby’s work tomorrow] sounds like it wants to get rid of our division/make everyone move to somewhere horrible if they want to keep their jobs/fire me/make me take a huge pay cut and work 1,000 hours of unpaid overtime.” Instantly, my mood switches to OMIGOD WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO MOVE AND THE KIDS CAN’T GO THROUGH THAT AGAIN AND I DON’T WANT TO MOVE AND MAYBE WE WILL BE BROKE AND HAVE TO FORECLOSE ON OUR HOUSE AND DECLARE BANKRUPTCY AND I AM NOT QUALIFIED TO WORK ANYWHERE BECAUSE ALTHOUGH I HAVE A DEGREE I HAVE NEVER HELD A REAL JOB AND EVERYTHING I HAVE DONE THIS LAST NINE YEARS WILL HAVE BEEN FOR NOTHING BECAUSE STAY-AT-HOME MOMS ARE NOT VALUABLE IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS AND THIS CROCKPOT MINESTRONE I MADE FOR DINNER IS ABSOLUTELY AWFUL I AM A HORRIBLE HOUSEWIFE.

It really should be said that Hubby and I got very little sleep last night because Spike, who is recovering from a horrendous sunburn, couldn’t sleep and came down into our bed last night. And then, that adorable 3-year-old proceeded to have a horrible day of “three-nager”ness (which Hubby defined as, “Spike’s feet woke up on the wrong side of my back this morning.”) which was such fun.

Ok. No sleep. No sleep makes you feel like life. Is not worth. Living. Seriously.

Anxiety can be caused by little to no sleep. Anxiety makes you fear things that are…mayyyybe real possibilities…but very slim chances. Like terrorists targeting you on vacation. And anxieties relating to job loss and perpetual poverty. And freaking out over the fact that you might not be a perfect wife and mother.

Hubby is nervous about the new company taking over. That is completely understandable. New management, new way of doing things, new corporate culture. But perhaps we should focus on what we can control. We can’t control if our boss decides to downsize us. We can’t control if the company wants to headquarter elsewhere. We have no control over what the future ultimately holds. We really don’t. It’s honestly terrifying.

I seek solace in the knowledge that about four years ago, we were in the same place. Spike was on the way, Hubby was laid off, we had no permanent dwelling, and Hubby and I were both scared to death. I prayed. I prayed without ceasing. I was so afraid of so many things, and God said “Trust.”

Trust.

Trust that I have your future in my hands. Trust that I know exactly what you need, and will not give you more than you can handle. Trust that I love you and I will not let you falter.

Be not afraid. Be not afraid. I am with you and will never leave you.

I can believe. I can believe God is in control. I can believe that he will be beside me in whatever I may encounter. I can believe there is a purpose and a reason to everything. When I doubt, when I want to run the other way, God is there to remind me that His will pervades all. His love conquers all. And his purpose for our lives permeates and engulfs us all. So it is not for nothing that we struggle with [yes, the banalities of laundry and stinky diapers] our tasks and it is not for nothing that we strive for Heaven in our lives. It is what makes life worth living…it is what makes life so precious…and it is what we will not abandon when we are forced to abandon our dreams for anything else. It is through trust in His plan that we can forge ahead with all we may encounter….even on a bad day:-)

Pearls, Potatoes, and Progeny

I would be nothing without my children. But I might be better dressed and on time.

mom-ing