Laundry Day

Today's topic is procrastination.  I was toying with the idea of not posting anything or posting a day late.  But, let's face it, I already did the post nothing thing with the Emperor's New Blog Post.  I don't think I can really pull that off twice.

I try really hard to live life the Nike way... Just Do It. 

I have come up with strategies to force myself to do things I don't like to do.  I have a friend that cleans the house with me.  I have a list of rewards I use when I have to have hard conversations with people.  I try and tackle life head on, and keep moving forward.

One of the few things that I do procrastinate about doing is laundry.  I wait to do laundry until it is a mountain that requires equipment to climb.  I wait until there is no clean underwear in my drawer.   I make the kids wear things that are maybe dirty-ish.  I wear things as often as I can. 

I convince myself to start doing the laundry by saying, it will be easy because there is nothing in the dryer.  Just run the machines. 

I then play the put the clean laundry in the baskets game.  Sometimes folded, sometimes not.

Finally, when we have resorted to looking for clean clothes in the baskets do I actually put it away.

I just don't know how to get myself to "Just Do It" with laundry.  Maybe someday I will.

What to see what the other gals have to say about procrastination?   Check them out at: Froggie, Momarock, and Merrylandgirl

On Quitting

Today when I left they gym I was wrestling with the fact that I have to work out everyday for the r e s t of my life.  Since I want to live a long time, that is a lot of work outs.  It suddenly seemed overwhelming.  I didn't want to do it anymore.

I ran at my goal pace today.  I didn't run that fast for very long, but I actually moved my legs that fast for a bit.  I really didn't think I ever could.  I was scared to bump the speed up that fast.  I held on to the emergency stop cord in case I died or fell or something.   But, I did it.  It wasn't that bad.

So, why when I left I didn't want to play anymore is really strange to me.  Then I decided to check out the Naperville Running Company's facebook page.  I found a blog about a guy who started running when he was 350 lbs.  You know what, I wanted to go on a run, right then.  But, I can't because DCF has all these stupid rules about people watching the kids.

I started running because it was on my can't list.  I wanted to take it off my can't list.  I did it. 

In December, I got some not so good news about my health.  I was feeling good and went to the Dr.  I wanted to prove that you can be fit and fat... but it didn't work out that way.  I learned that one of my cholesterol numbers was out of whack.  (My sugar numbers were good, so all you folks who think I am going to get diabetes can bite yourselves.)  I have high triglycerides. 

The Dr. gave me a choice, loose weight and get your diet under control or take pills.  My sister killed herself with pills.  Pills killed my father.  I don't do pills.  (Pills do some great things for a lot of folks, but you can see why I don't want to take them.)

So, I have stopped eating carbs.  Ok, I have cut back on carbs.  But I ate a bagel the other day and it made me ill.   That is progress.   I am working out 5-6 days a week and I am seriously thinking about applying for Mom Grant to hire a trainer for a couple of sessions.   I want to run a 10K. 

But, if I really and truly don't want to do pills, I really have to get my head around the working out and the food.  I have to do it forever.  There is not finish line, this is an everyday battle.

Tuesday, I am going to lace up my shoes and try and run at the goal pace for a bit longer.  But, for a little bit today, I wanted to give up.

I am not going to go all diet blog on you, because that isn't what this is about.  It is about being healthy and not taking pills.  Periodically, I might share with you what is going on.

The voices in my head

Our topic for today is to share a funny valentine story.  I am going to share with you the voices in my head.

Oh, great, you come up with a topic and then you don't have anything to say about it.  That is great, just great.

Be quiet, I can't think with all your nagging about my topic idea.  Just be quiet.

Fine, I will but you won't come up with anything.  Oh, wait what about that time when Bob got a Valentine from one of the female managers at one of the stores he was visiting.  You said that you might laugh about that one day.

I am not there yet.  I still do not find it funny for a woman to send a valentine to another woman's husband.  I mean really.  I know that she thought it was an office address and that I would not pick it up from the mail with a four month old baby screaming like a banshee in the back of the car.  With the extra baby weight still hanging on my middle.

Seriously, your freak out was pretty funny.  I mean you were crazy pissed off.

Too soon.

Fine, it is your topic and you have to come up with something.... and you can't.

What about....

What about nothing.  You got nothing.

How about the time that my BFF and I got all dressed in black and put a single red rose in the locker of my true love?  I think we laughed about that a lot.  I mean we snuck into the locker bay with the cover of night.  We even lied to my parents about where we were going and drove over there late at night so we could put the rose in his locker so it would be the first thing he saw on Valentine's morning.  It was fun.  We still talk about that caper today.  I think the black ski masks were over kill, but it added to the ambiance of the event.  We got pie afterwards at the all night diner.

See you got... oh crap, you came up with something.

baaahhhaaawwaaa

Want to see what the other ladies have to say?  Check them out at: Froggie, Momarock, and Merrylandgirl

Emperors New Blog Post

This week's installment of the Thursday blog project is to create something on a based on a Fairy Tale. 

I will be writing a blog post about a fairy tale.  But, I hurt my back and I have hired two talented authors to write the blog post for me.  These authors have come from far away and they have promised me that this blog post will be amazing.

They have been working tirelessly on this blog post.  But, they won't let me preview it.  It is being written under tight security.  But, it is supposed to be absolutely the best blog post in the whole world.  I might have to have a parade to celebrate the awesomeness of the blog post.

Brace yourself, here is the post:





















The authors did say something about foolish people not being able to read it.  Where are those authors?  They seemed to have skipped town, with my money.

From the crowd, a child screams, there is no blog post, the blog is naked.

I would cast Mark Harmon as the Emperor.

Want to see what the other ladies do with their fairy tale assignment:  Check them out at: Froggie, Momarock, and Merrylandgirl

Turn back time

This week's topic for our Thursday blog post is about time travel.  Specifically, if you could go back in time and change one historical event, which one would it be? Why would you, and what changes do you think would come from it?

Of course changing the outcomes of 9/11, genocide and famine and all the horrors of the world seem like the "right" thing to do.  I certainly believe that our world would be a better place if we were more tolerant of each other.  Yet, I am going to change a different day.  I am going to change 11/21/2000.

My father had an appointment with his doctor that day.  His blood pressure was higher than his doctor would have liked.  So, this doctor prescribed a medication to take in conjunction with his current blood pressure medication.  The interaction of those two drugs and my father's body chemistry caused his blood pressure to dramatically drop.  This drop caused him to die.

I would change the decision that the doctor made.  Would my father still be alive today?  I don't know.  He did have an underlying heart condition.  But, we would have had a few more days, months or maybe even years with him.  I would love for him to have met my kids.  For them to have met him. 

My Dad used to carry peanuts around with him when he would work in the garden.  When little kids would come and visit he would make sure he had enough for them.  He would then give them jobs to do while he worked.  Kids always loved to hang with my Dad.  I wish my kids could have gotten to do that.

So, it isn't altruistic, but it would make me happy.  I don't know that one day of change could really make the world a better place anyway.  It would be nice if it worked that way, but I don't think that it does.

The picture is of me, my Dad and my brother taken at my college graduation.

 

Want to see what everyone else would change?  Check them out at: Froggie, Momarock, and Merrylandgirl

Not the real me

This week's topic is to create an outline of a character for a fiction story that is based on you.  Dang it, I had it in my head that it was a fictional story of your life.  I was going to be freakin' awesome.  Like super nice and down to earth, really pretty, rich, amazing athlete, perfect mother, amazing house was clean all the time and never pissed itself (that's right, I haven't told you all in blog land about how my house pissed itself... putting it on the to do list), kids are well behaved, etc.

But, since the character is supposed to be loosely based on me, I guess I have to walk past that concept.  Still, this character is going to have a house that does not piss itself.  It is still fiction, and it is bad enough that real me has a house that pisses itself, fictional me does not need that.

Ok, so our character lives in a nice suburban community in a house that does not, would not, can not ever piss itself. 

She has three kids.  One of these kids has some behavior issues that she helps him work through.  She gets to deal with lots and lots of issues with the school and various teachers.  It is always the highlight of her day to get an email about something that he did.  But, she is always secretly impressed with the type of mayhem he comes up with.  This kid never comes up with your garden variety of trouble.  No, it is always new and creative, such as being the Don of an illegal homework pass operation. 

The other kids are active into sports and what not.  They do well in school and generally don't give her too hard a time.  There is garden variety mayhem with the younger kids.

There is a dog.  The dog tends to eat everything on the counter and chase people out of the house.  At least people that don't live there.  So, there is always a certain amount of unexpected comedic chaos as it relates to the dog.  Dog does things like getting picked up by the cops and hauled to doggie prison.  Barks incessantly at the HOA President and things like that.

Our character attempts to be fit.  But, really, with three kids and the dog, it is hard to fit it all in sometimes.  She secretly dreams of running a marathon, but isn't sure her old tired body can actually do that.  But, hey, she can do a 5k and for now, that is good enough.  She is freaky strong though. 

Her ride is a mini-van that is so full of crumbs and kid mess that you could probably live in it comfortably for a week and not starve.  Assuming you could get past the fact that you are eating crumbs from the floor of the mini-van.  There is a Barney DVD that has been jammed in the CD player for three years.

There is always a lost library book, forgotten spelling words, dinner that burns and other sorts of out of control activity.  She tries really hard to get on top of it, but can't and really regrets that she stopped drinking wine.  Oh, and she is in the running for the crown of worst mom of the year.  So, when her kids yell at her and tell her she is the worst mom, she can say with full honesty, "Yes dear, I know.  I have the crown."

She has a pretty good sense of humor about it all and doesn't seem to mind that her style is an austerity special, jeans from goodwill, a sweater that is 15 years old and a Tee from Target.  Oh, and her husband is Mark Harmon.

I think there would be a tone of exhausted chaos around her, but at the end of the day, everyone has a good time.

Want to read about the other characters?  Check them out at: Froggie, Momarock, and Merrylandgirl 

Giving up baby

Recently, a 19 year old girl walked into a fire station in the city and asked the nice firemen to take her 6 month old baby.  She said she could no longer take care of him and relinquished the child to the firemen.  From all accounts, the baby was well cared for, clean, arrived with a diaper bag loaded with necessities.  The girl did not offer up her name or identification and through tears left her child.  The police are looking for her.  I hope not to punish her.  She did the one last, most courageous, thing she could do when she finally realized she was in over her head.

Taking care of small infants is hard and thankless.  You are exhausted and alone.  There is a lot of crying, from the baby too.  While you could fault this girl for not coming to the conclusion she couldn't raise this child before she had the baby, you can not fault her for realizing she was in over her head and doing something about it.  She did not abuse the child.  She did not abandon the child in a garbage can.  She treated the child with respect and gave up her child.

40 some years ago, my mother made the same decision.  She made it before she had me.  She was 16 at the time.  Having three kids of my own, I can not imagine how hard it is to give up a baby, especially one that you have cared for for 6 months.  It is the most selfless act of kindness that has ever been bestowed upon me, and I am generally pretty lucky.  While my life is not perfect it is a darn site better than it most likely would have been being raised by a 16 year old with no money or education.

When Sam was about a year old he screamed all the time.  He did not sleep, he did not play, he did not walk, he did not talk, all he did was scream.  After dealing with this and a 3 year old by myself for most of the time (my husband traveled M-F every week), I called the Dr. and told her that unless she had some idea about how we could make him stop screaming I was going to take him to Target and leave him in a cart in the store.  He was cute, Target was in a nice neighborhood, someone would take him.  The Dr. thought that perhaps I could swing by there on my way, since I had to drive by there to get to Target anyway.  Sam got help, and he stopped screaming and now he is a lovable, adorable, sweet child.  While I don't think I ever really would have left him, I was seriously considering it.

My point is that if I, a parent with a lot of resources and support, wanted to give my child away and was overwhelmed imagine how a young woman/girl would feel.  I don't know how much support she had, but clearly not enough to handle the situation she was in.  We should not judge her decision, we should applaud it.  She did no harm to her child, she did what she thought was best.  If the authorities punish her for not making this decision sooner, then I think we need to seriously reconsider our rules.

May this young girl know that she has bestowed upon her child the one last thing she could, a chance to have parents that have the support and resources to raise her son to do something great.  I hope she does something great too.