It’s not that I planned on being pregnant at 19. I mean don’t get me wrong I wasn’t an “afterschool special” or anything. I was married and I eventually wanted kids, it just happened way before I was ready. As I struggled through diapers and breast-feeding and formula I soon realize that it wasn’t like it looked in the brochure. Every milestone came after much anticipation and provided instant relief of “Whew! Thank God I didn’t screw that up.” The time eventually came to sta
#Fear #Moms #EmptyNest #Faith #Uncertainty #Parenthood #God #Sinnglemom #Jesus
#Fear #Moms #EmptyNest #Faith #Uncertainty #Parenthood #God #Sinnglemom #Jesus
As my baby approaches a few of these milestones, I find myself thinking about the skills, the traits and the flaws that I have instilled in my children. As I rapidly become slingshotted into empty nest syndrome, I can’t help but think that all these years of parenting have shown my child the best and worst of me, and now, they are going to carry it with them. Today at church I heard a saying that I haven’t heard in awhile. “The nut doesn’t fall far from the tree.” So true,
My boss is very pregnant with her first child. Very pregnant. Like so pregnant that you can’t help but wonder everytime she’s a little late for work if this is “the day”. She walks around looking absolutely stunning and self-assured…nothing like how I looked when I was pregnant. She and I are almost the same age. I say almost because she’s a little younger than me, but I figure, I can use the the age curve. While my boss gets ready to give birth to her first child, and
While walking through Hallmark, I was overwhelmed with the choices. There were twenty good cards for him, all saying how wonderful a man he is. It took me forever to pick out just the right card. I had to find one that expressed my gratitude and obviously something to make him laugh as well. Hallmark knocked it right out of the park. After choosing a card and picking an envelope to match, I had one additional card to buy. I started reading through cards, looking closely
I’m a 38 (almost 39, but we aren’t talking about that) year old single mother of one grown child and one child that is as close to grown as you can get. I have adult children. When I tell people that I have adult children they look at me with either the side head tilt of sympathy because they think I qualified for a starring role in an after school special about ten year olds giving birth, or with the jaw dropping, eyes bugging out of their heads disbelief. My appearance d
Somewhere around Rebecca’s first birthday I decided that she would get a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe. A Cozy Coupe is basically a small plastic red car with a yellow roof and black steering wheel. It’s a kids toy that requires Fred Flintstone type power to make the car move, and is basically a carbon copy of a smart car except smaller. It was a great gift for a first birthday. I brought the box home and ripped it open feeling just like a kid on Christmas day. I was going to
I remember sitting across from my ex mother-in-law listening to her tell me that I had manipulated her son into getting me pregnant and that, although this completely trashed my life, all she was angry about was that I had ruined his life and his chances of any success. On that day, at the age of 19, feeling like a complete and utter failure, I made a commitment. I would be a great mom. I’m not proud of every parenting decision I have made since then, like the time I made m
Almost 6 ½ years ago I made a decision to try and change my life. I was determined to get into shape and lose some weight. I packed up the Oreos and the Thin Mints, put away the Fettuccini Alfredo and Lasagna, and begrudgingly made a vow against Nachos and Enchiladas. I decided that I would begin my physical transformation with no pasta, no bread, no fruit, no carbohydrates, no red meat, no alcohol (which as it turns out includes wine), no pork products, and generally nothi
Being a parent is hard. When you first become a parent they hand you this little tiny fragile body, and you think about not hurting them, about feeding them properly and sleeping schedules, about monitoring diaper changes, about talking to the pediatrician about all of your questions while not appearing to be as clueless as you really are and occasionally you check to make sure they haven’t stopped breathing in the middle of the night. It’s hard. You find yourself saying t
When I was a little girl I used to lie on my bed with my cousin, who was more like my sister, and we would day dream out loud about what our lives would be like. We were very progressive 8 year olds in the 1980’s so our dreams consisted of not caving to the traditional confines of the stay at home mom, and we would work hard toward some sort of fabulous job such as… secretary or teacher. And always in the dream there was the moment of meeting the perfect man. Well the perfect
I remember when my girls were little one year preparing for a flight to Florida. My girls were 4 and 2 and were seasoned travelers. They knew how to be on their best behavior at an airport, (and occasionally even did so), knew how to navigate pre 9/11 security like they worked for the TSA, and knew the rules about having physical contact with either me or a suitcase I was carrying. These girls had seasoned travel skills. I remember preparing for the trip, packing suitcase
Every morning as I’m mentally battling with the snooze button on my alarm, I start the day with a form of Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley. It always consists of some form of the SNL favorite of “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggonit people like me.” It also holds more personal affirmations such as, “Working out is part of who you are”, “God has a perfect plan for your life”, “Food doesn’t change your emotional balance”, “Don’t screw anything up with the girl