Amanda surprised me tonight.  Every night we read together before I put her to bed.  No one else, not even her dad can do it (she won't have it), I have to do and it is one of our rituals that I enjoy.  Well, tonight, she read one of the stories we have read before, to me.   Word for word, for the most part, with a few stumble here and ther, which is quite normal!   But she is six and she read on her own and I am so proud of her!  I gave her a big hug and...

We are a week away from the first day of school for my children.  Adam begins high school and Amanda goes into first grade!

I've done all the usual stuff, clothes shopping for both of them.  My son is almost as tall as I am and he's going to be 14 in....OMG...two weeks!  We're planning a park visit for him!  He's grown out of almost all of his clothes!  All I kept hearing from him was, "Mom I have nothing to wear"; "Mom, my pants are too short"; "Mom, I have no underwear"!  Good grief!  I can never buy enough socks or underwear because those go missing in action!  As for  Amanda, she's transitioning from a size 6/7 to a size 7/8.  She's grown too!

I like reading about other moms and how they cope with their families and how they do things. To me it’s always interesting to see how other people live and how they handle the situation that comes at them from time to time! What I don’t like however, are those moms who are so full of themselves they can’t understand or believe that another person have a hard time doing some things and struggle with being a mom. Everyone is not perfect. Some people handle things differently. The thing...

I took my daughter for her annual physical earlier this evening. I just don't understand why they schedule appointments when you have to wait almost 30 minutes to be seen?! The doctor we saw this evening wasn't her usual pediatrician, it's the other doctor who is also a part of the practice. Since her doctor was fully booked, I decided to keep this appointment that I had made a month ago. It was good timing too since she suddenly got ill last Wednesday night, right before Thanksgiving and...

I was listening to the radio the other day. The topic of discussion was about kids and touching, warning them about appropriate touching and strangers. The radio host was accepting calls from his listeners asking them to tell their experiences and the one question he asks each caller is "At what age did you tell your kids about appropriate touching?" and to callers without kids, "when is the appropriate age to talk to kids about appropriate touching?" One woman who has children said six. ...

It may seem like my life is hanging by a thread sometimes. One more snap, just a fraction and it all goes by the wayside! But I will not utter defeat, or think defeat. I will tarry on as other mom's do and have done! What I really need is a visit to that shaman lady back home to give me a bath or something and wash my house out with some of her rituals! Times like these I miss my mommy, she would have taken care of all that for me! I'm just back from the hospital with my 13 year old w...

Well, she has moved out today. My 18 year old, who says to us, look at it as her growing up, not moving away. I want to, and I know she is, but right now I'm not feeling in a good enough mood to write the whole thing and give some perspective. I thought I would be able to write and discuss and process the whole thing but I'm just going to go tuck up in bed with the hubby, drink my Foster's and watch Sci Fi.... Life rears up and bites you in the ass sometimes and there are times I won...

This morning on Good Morning America they mentioned a report they did about many couples today who are getting married are not planning to have children. Many feel this is not their focus or a priority and so they are not having children, they ‘choose to be child-free’ as the report said. Forget about succesful adults, everyone seems to be thinking the same way these days. They do not want to have children! It seems to be the choice of a lot of young women and couples that I know pers...

Yesterday, I experienced the most horrible 15 minutes of my life. I hope never to experience it again, ever! It was pretty much a lazy day at home for us. The night before was my oldest daughter's Prom (I'll talk about that another time and I've got some pics!), my hubby wasn't feeling well, hasn't for a couple of days and the stubborn man refuses to go to the doctor, so we were basically home thawing out, doing nothing but lazying around, in bed, around the computer, taking turns, and graz...

Is what my kids do a lot – it has to be! Why else when I call them, ‘a thousand times’, and tell them to do something, they ignore me and keep on doing whatever it is they are doing, i.e., watching television, playing a game, playing with dolls, etc.; when I get testy, i.e., call their names out in full, raise my voice and demand that they do as I say or else, then they look sheepish and scramble to do what I asked them to do, saying “I didn’t hear you mommy”! Yeah right! My response...

I'm not sure how to put this into words or what to even write about. I know it's been on my mind a lot lately and I have to write to think it out. Recently my daughter said she has agreed to go steady with a boy, she's 17, he's 19. My hubby met him, I haven't formally met him. My hubby met him because he used to work where my daughter works. He's doing nothing right now. NOt going to school, no job, nothing. Although he's supposed to start school in January, college that is. ...

I must say when I saw the title of the article “Avoid raising a Serial Killer” I laughed! I thought that would be a weird way of thinking for any parent! But then I read the article and I realize that Mike Zimmerman, the author, was really making sense. Can you imagine that some parents might actually have to go through this and would think this way? I wouldn’t blame them either because what Mr. Zimmerman describes can be so innocent that you wouldn’t even think of associating that ...

I remember the days of my youth when I could go off either on my own or with my siblings and roam free without my parents worrying about us. We could go from one neighborhood to the next, and back in the day as a very young child I didn’t live in a Subdivision (in those days it would be what’s that?) however, we lived in close proximity to have a neighborhood of kids that could play and hang out together. Everyone knew everyone’s business and you couldn’t do anything bad because we had “a v...

Is driving me crazy! If there was a time when I needed a trip to the other side of the world, it would be now. The constant bickering; the yelling; the possessiveness; the competition, why oh why?! When they are friends they are the best of friends. When they fight, it’s all out war and I have to be the referee. I’m tied of it. I’m tired of talking and now my talking as turned to yelling and threats. I’m exhausted. If one has something, the other wants it. If one gets a pr...