In Like a Lion

March is ugly and wet and gray in New England. Things don't start getting pretty around here again until about sometime in May. I've never been much of a fan of spring because of this, but I am definitely happy for spring for probably the first time in my life. The kids get to go back to soccer and we can get to the playground again and it will be warm enough to walk to school and the library and this year I have a house to spring clean and, oddly enough, I am terrifically excited about that. 

I feel like I just put the March schedule up on our dry erase calendar, but that was a week ago already and it has totally filled up since. I stand in the kitchen and just stare at it because it is packed with all of our comings and goings and honestly, I am slightly overwhelmed with all that's going on this month. I constantly remind myself that it's not all at once. We only live one moment, one hour, one day at a time not the whole month  in five minutes, so it's easier for me to process the one day at a time, item by item. Looking at all the lists of meals and the kids activities and my activities and the blue lines of my husbands trips crossing through entire weeks of the calendar, it makes me feel like I'm slogging through thick mud and then I look out the window and see the gray skies and it can be a bit much. But we only have to focus on one day at a time... We don't really have any other option. Even if we wanted to do next week first, well, that's just not going to happen unless someone has a time machine I don't know about. 

So, we march into March and just keep marching on through. We spring forward on Sunday and I can hear mothers across the nation groaning because that one hour messes so much with bedtime. It's hard enough to get three spirited children to bed ...to stay... at a reasonable hour as it is. Sheer madness. 

But now? It's bedtime and a hush has fallen... hopefully to remain. 

Tonight, I am reading A Thousand Splendid Suns 

And isn't this the sweetest baby blanket you've ever seen. I almost want to make it for myself in varying shades of grey, cream, and green, maybe yellow? Maybe I'll get to play with some yarn tonight. 

I'm not sure how late I am going to make it. Shocker of all shockers I completely didn't get a chance to pour myself a cup of coffee this morning and then next thing I know, it's 2:30 in the afternoon and I am tired and cranky and the bulb went on on the top of my head. Coffee. Bing! 

So, I had a mere cup when it came to me and I've gone down hill since. So, I can blame my incoherence and lack of focus today on that fact alone. 

And there is a little boy who seems to think he is invisible trying to sneak past me after he was already put to bed three times... 

So, that's all for now. 

Shall We Try Once Again?

Shall we? If you'll have me and put up with my fickle ways and distracted mind? I'm not without excuses, of course. I've a bag, a messy bag at that, filled with all manner of valid excuses, really. But, I am not going to bore you with them. My apologies... Let's start afresh.

It's a new year and that means, again, more resolutions no one ever really keeps. Besides, everyone knows how hard it is to start anything in the cold, hard, dead of winter. March is where the action is. At least that's what I tell myself when I find myself at the end of February in exactly the same place as I was on January first.

But I liked where I was on January the first and each day all we can do it pick ourselves up and do our very best with the day. Yes?

To be honest, I was writing a lot on parenting, particularly my view on my own parenting situation and I think I tapered off because sometimes I felt like I just didn't want to talk about it. We all know what a hard job this is and frankly, for a while there, I felt like somewhat of a failure, mucking up my children's only childhood at every turn. I knew deep down I wasn't REALLY, but it's only natural to have a rough patch where no one seems to be making any good choices and all you seem to be doing is pulling at the reigns and correcting negative behaviors. It's not fun. Not for me. Not for anyone. But, here is the thing: every child has a struggle and every parent has a struggle. Just because we all smile and tout the genius of our offspring at every chance we get, doesn't mean that things are always shiny and fabulous. Maybe we do it because we know things are never going to always be going the way we want them to and we would prefer to rehearse the good things in order to remind ourselves that our children won't end up in all the bad places in life that we hope, believe and pray that they won't. No one has all the answers and I'm only seven years into this whole Motherhood game, but I know my heart's in the right place and I know I'm trying. And that must mean, I must be doing something right.

So, if I go off on a tangent concerning the weather or some crazy vacation spot that I've decided to plan out in detail and put on my Bucket List or if I prefer to write a critique on one of the many books I have to read at one time to keep me sane or one of the recipes I have to attempt because life is too short to not enjoy what could be the best meal you could have possibly ever eaten, then you'll know that at least life is filled with so many other things that can keep us happy and our mind off of a passing trouble or the crazy phases or whims of a strong willed child(ren).

So, tomorrow it's supposed to snow. Again.
I'm reading a crazy vampire apocalypse novel, the second in a series that I began a while back that I didn't realize was a vampire series when I started, I thought it was a sci fi Michael Crichton kind of book, but it's not and now, I'm completely hooked, albeit equally horrified by the violence of it.
Reading the kids a chapter every night of Peter Pan and we are already in talks of who may or may not be whom for Halloween 2013 and I'm already getting the feeling that I should learn my lesson and pull out the sewing machine earlier than last time if things are getting this serious about Captain Hook and Wendy and who the Lost Boys are going to be, I just hope I will have lost some weight by the fall if my children insist I wear leggings and a skirt made of leaves...
Guess who made homemade playdough over February Break? This Crazy Lady! And it actually works and it's from stuff we have in the cabinet! Go figure!
For Date Night In with my husband this week I think I will try my hand at pork chops as we've talked about cooking things other than chicken and red meat and vegetarian and rarely do we every actually do it. So, pork chops seem like a nice normal straying from our norm.
And as for my vacation Bucket List planning, I think this is just the most insane thing since people started buying celestial orbs and I absolutely must learn to scuba and see it for myself. In all seriousness.

Ok, so that's where I am these days.

No, I won't inundate you with all kinds of crazy links like this all the time. Unless of course, I've had an interesting and stimulating week and simply must share everything. This has been three months in the making more or less. And there you go.