A few of the bloggers that I like to read have posted "Bucket Lists" over the last few months. Most of them are recognizing their 30th birthdays. Recently, my husband and I watched the movie "The Bucket List," and I began thinking of a few things I'd like to mark off my list this year (in no particular order).
I refer to the last few years and the personal Hell that has been gone through as a mid-life crisis, so to speak. Though I hope it's not truly mid-life, because that will mean I won't make it much past the age of 70. And that just seems a little too short.
35 is waiting for me just a few weeks from now...
1. Take up running.
2. Make more time for yoga.
3. Make more picnic lunches for my girls.
4. Find patience. (It is elusive.)
5. Date my husband more. (4 children make baby-sitters expensive)
6. Write more poetry.
7. Eat healthier (see the "Mommy Diet").
8. Forgive. (I say that I have, though there are days that I slide backwards and revoke all forgiveness...)
9. Forget. (Though I don't know if that is ever entirely possible.)
10. Hike.
11. Take family bike rides at the park.
12. Remove toxic people. (This has already started, long before I recognized the need to remove them from my life.)
13. Go to sleep earlier.
14. Wake up earlier.
15. Read more books.
16. Drink less caffeine.
17. Say "yes" less often.
18. Stand up for myself.
19. Watch less TV.
20. Clean out paper files in my attic.
21. Put together photo albums for the girls of their baby pictures.
22. Yell less.
23. Be grateful.
24. Reinstate my house cleaning schedule. (It went by the wayside 2 babies ago.)
25. Start up Family Game Night.
26. Read more with my children.
27. Pray. More.
28. Drink more water.
29. Complain less.
30. Tell those whom I appreciate that I really do appreciate them.
31. Use less technology.
32. Use more coupons.
33. Take a family trip.
34. Practice grace.
35. Be grateful. (For so much, to so many, even to those whom you would not expect.)
Thursday, May 19
Tuesday, May 10
The Mommy Diet
Last weekend we were celebrating a friend's daughter's birthday at a local park. Standing in a circle talking with my friends, one daughter ran up to me and handed me her licked, half eaten cupcake. Another friend's son did the same to her. What did we do? We ate the cupcakes.
A third friend stood looking at us and gagged.
Since then I've paid a lot of attention to what I have been eating, and I realized, I don't eat very much, and really, not very healthily. I never make myself lunch, rather I peruse the leftovers on my children's plates, and pick from there. Snacks are pretty much the same. Rarely do I have the opportunity to sit an eat a proper breakfast, opting for coffee in my mommy travel mug and a cereal bar stashed in the diaper bag for stoplight consumption.
I don't recall seeing my own mother eating very much, especially when I was younger, though I would occasionally see her eating lunch (some "weird" concoction of leftover items) when I was a high school student.
And I learned this morning that my stoplight granola bars aren't limited just to me. Lots of other moms are doing it. Must be a good thing, this mommy diet.
A third friend stood looking at us and gagged.
Since then I've paid a lot of attention to what I have been eating, and I realized, I don't eat very much, and really, not very healthily. I never make myself lunch, rather I peruse the leftovers on my children's plates, and pick from there. Snacks are pretty much the same. Rarely do I have the opportunity to sit an eat a proper breakfast, opting for coffee in my mommy travel mug and a cereal bar stashed in the diaper bag for stoplight consumption.
I don't recall seeing my own mother eating very much, especially when I was younger, though I would occasionally see her eating lunch (some "weird" concoction of leftover items) when I was a high school student.
And I learned this morning that my stoplight granola bars aren't limited just to me. Lots of other moms are doing it. Must be a good thing, this mommy diet.
Friday, May 6
Mother's Day
Mother's Day is this weekend. What plans do you have in store? What does your family have in store for you? We have a party to celebrate one of those motherhood reasons. But the day itself, not sure what to do yet. Perhaps we'll just see where it takes us.
I received a card today in the mail from an old friend. For a moment I was afraid to open it, worried of what I might find in it. I should have known better that I didn't need to worry it all. There was only a name signed in it.
Mothering is a tricky, hard road. Tiring. I am always second guessing if I did the right thing, said the right thing, acted the right way. I am learning not to gleam too much from the mothering figures I keep or have kept around me, for fear of being led awry.
A few weekends ago we stayed in, all day. It was a rainy, dreary day, good for a comfort food dinner and a fire. I like those kinds of days, where we lock the front gate and the front door, and close off the outside world and keep to ourselves, safe in our little nest without worry of what or who. My brother calls it "circling the wagons."
Maybe that's what we'll do. Circle.
I received a card today in the mail from an old friend. For a moment I was afraid to open it, worried of what I might find in it. I should have known better that I didn't need to worry it all. There was only a name signed in it.
Mothering is a tricky, hard road. Tiring. I am always second guessing if I did the right thing, said the right thing, acted the right way. I am learning not to gleam too much from the mothering figures I keep or have kept around me, for fear of being led awry.
A few weekends ago we stayed in, all day. It was a rainy, dreary day, good for a comfort food dinner and a fire. I like those kinds of days, where we lock the front gate and the front door, and close off the outside world and keep to ourselves, safe in our little nest without worry of what or who. My brother calls it "circling the wagons."
Maybe that's what we'll do. Circle.
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