I’m observing Lent early … or is it late?

I think I am having what another blogger once characterized as a ‘bloxistential crisis’. To blog or not to blog? And what about? And why? And where? And all the other journalistic ‘w’ questions. I won’t bore you with the details of my personal philosophical ponderings.

In other news, I am a sappy sentimentalist about all things holiday. I love it: the smell of pine and the lights and the food and the decorations and even the extra church services. Growing up, I always felt safe and warm and loved and blessed sitting by the tree, listening to Elvis Christmas records, drinking hot chocolate. I loved Christmas and found the holiday season magical.

As a mother of three I have learned there is no ‘magic’ involved. The presents and the lights and the food don’t just appear the day after Thanksgiving. We can’t just click a button on our desktop and change the world’s backdrop to “holiday.”

No, magical holidays require labor. Moms work hard in December. But it’s a labor of love, and one I refuse to allow to cause me stress. I refuse to relinquish my holiday joy to the race and the demands of spend and shop. But creating a season, preserving personal peace, and leaving some time for me to sit down by the tree with Elvis, my hot chocolate, and my book, does require strategy, planning and forethought.

Last year, with some success, I took a hiatus from blogging. I stepped back for the month of December. I concentrated on my family and on the holidays, and I reflected on my own goals, bloggy and otherwise. As it happens, 2007 was a pretty good year, so I’ve decided to do the same again.

This year, I am expanding the break to include personal internet time. Lately I have been spending a lot of time reading blogs, trying to be witty on my Facebook page, losing games of Scrabulous. In theory, taking some time off in cyberspace will free up some quality time in real space for holiday joy and year end self-reflection.

Come back in January to find out how it turns out - whether I have the willpower to stay free of Facebook, away from ALOTT5MA, minus MommyTracks for a whole month - and to see if I can answer that all-important question - what is the meaning of my blogging life?

In the meantime, feel free to use the comments to discuss how you stay stress-free in the holidays.

Peace and Joy and many thanks for spending some of your time in 2007 reading my ramblings.

Posted in Everything Else |

You Can’t Beat the Pay.

As any mother knows, the little moments of reward, the ones between, sometimes even during, the Frustrating Exhausting Overwhelming No-Breaks days, can doctor a mom’s spirits in a blink. A sampling of mine from the last two days:

My kindergartener, now writing in typical vowel-free phonetics, (a rush all its own), wrote me a list of “chores” yesterday. The last one was “Olwos eat brkft before worc.”

When I dropped 4 off at school, I bent down to kiss her on the cheek, but before I got a chance to tell her to have a good day she said: “Hey Mom, don’t forget to smile today.”

As I was trudging up the stairs to help Kong go potty, he yelled “No, Mom I DO IT MYSELF,” and slammed the door. A few minutes later he peered out from behind the corner of the door, dimple gleaming and eyes asparkle, then threw the door open to reveal he had completed the task AND pulled his own underwear and pants up.

“Ta-Da,” he said.

Posted in Kid Speak |

Is it like this in Australia?

In tribute (and with apologies), an attempt at parody of one of my favorite children’s books, then and still:

Leondra and the Overwhelming, Frustrating, No-Breaks, Very Mom Day

My husband hit the snooze button but forgot to turn his alarm off and I woke up to Firehouse singing Baby Don’t Treat Me Bad. Then 2 came in screaming and when I put him in front of the TV the cable was out and I couldn’t find his Bob the Builder DVD and his yelling woke up the dog who started yelping. I went to get a cup of coffee but the coffeepot had leaked all over the kitchen counter.

I knew it was going to be an overwhelming, frustrating, no-breaks, very mom day.

At breakfast 6 wanted frozen waffles, 4 wanted sweetened cereal and 2 wanted homemade pancakes. We were out of waffles and we were out of cereal so I made homemade pancakes. 6 pushed his plate away, 4 said I was mean and she didn’t like me and 2 pretended his pancake was a laser gun and pointed it at me while making shooting noises.

I can’t wait until they’re all grown up with kids of their own. (more…)

Posted in Job of Mom |

The Mommy War Meme

If you watch any TV you know that, for mothers, every parenting choice is pretty black and white. We moms are at war, after all, duking it out on playgrounds, besting each other at PTA meetings, drag-racing our minivans down the interstate, all to win the title World’s Greatest Mommy.

In my blogging life at least, I have tried to avoid this trend. But, lately, I’ve been thinking – if you can’t beat ‘em, why not join ‘em. Instead of trying to have a civil and gender-inclusive discourse about parenting, I decided what we moms really need is quick and easy way to figure out who’s in which battle camp. After all, if you’re watching the Today Show, you know there are no in betweens, we all belong in various parenting camps, each sitting in judgment on the other. But how can we recognize each other? How can we figure out who’s on our team? I came up with a couple ideas.

Last week at 6’s soccer practice, I talked to the coach about borrowing some of those red vests the kids wear when they scrimmage. I thought I could start asking moms questions like: work or stay home? Then, I’d hand out the red vests to one side and we’d have a way to quickly recognize our teammates. Unfortunately, the coach said they didn’t have any to spare.

Then, when I was taking a “computer procrastination” test on Facebook (it should come as no surprise I didn’t fare well), a solution occurred to me. Why not a quiz or a meme? After all, if we’re at war, we should be able to easily develop some quick questions, tally up our comparison percentage points and know who our friends should be. To that end, I give you: The Mommy War Meme. (more…)

Posted in The Fretting Feminist |