Minivan Moments

Well, tomorrow is Memorial Day. It is a day to remember those who have risked their lives to maintain our way of life here in America. It is a day to remember the families who have lost loved ones in the fight - to honor their sacrifices in true American spirit: by celebrating what they have fought for - our freedom. We may disagree about religion, politics, taxes, education, and our fundamental values, but that is the beauty of our nation: we are free to disagree. Thanks to all of the many men and women who have gone and those who continue to go out into the world to fight on our behalf. We are indebted to each of you as we sit comfortably in our homes with television, computer, air-conditioning, refrigerators, telephones, running water, electricity, and easy access to food. Your dedication to this great nation inspires me, maybe not to join you on the battlefield, but to be true to the American Dream - to live in loving compassion in this world, working hard, helping others, spe...

My mortgage holder is about to make me nuts! These people, who own our loan, who are as intimate with the terms of the loan as we, the borrowers, are, keep contacting us to refinance. Yeah, you're thinking, "so what?" I'll tell you so what! They write us letters telling us how much we can save on our monthly payments if we'll just pay $2000 closing costs and, oh, increase our interest rate. THEN, they call me... they tell me they have a great offer for me on a refinance interest rate that is gonna save me lots of money. Yeah, okay, tell me about it. She puts on someone who can help me (so the person who called me can't actually tell me about the great deal she called to offer me?? that was my first clue), and this guy gets on and asks me if we have any plans for a refinance. Umm, so I tell the guy, "gee, we're always willing to see what the new rates are to see if we can save some money." So he ASKS ME WHAT MY CURRENT RATE IS ! When I t...

Tonight we go to the sleep lab. Just Dania and Mommy. And some strangers. And some cameras. And some electronics hooked up to wires hooked up to Dania. Should be a nice restful night away from home. Dania got up early, as usual. She took a somewhat short nap, though, so we are going to have to travel up toward Nashville early or she will fall asleep on the way up. That would be bad. We'll probably meet Daddy up by his office and have dinner, then be on our way. We must park in the stadium parking garage (yeah, we'll be sure to arrive before dark), and be checking in by 7 or 7:30pm. Then we have to have lights out by 10p and they will wake us up at 6:30a. Like I need one more person whose job it is to wake me up before 7am . Well, here's the rundown of what we can expect, physically: electrodes on head and forehead, affixed with washable gel; electrodes on sides of eyes to monitor REM sleep blinking and movements; electrodes on chin to monitor face muscle ac...

This morning, not only was I up before 7 am again, but I actually waited until my husband was done with his run and his shower to start the coffee. Then the unthinkable happened: my coffee pot broke. AAAAAAKKK! Noooooooo! The pot is sputtering and hissing, and I look over at it in confusion (I have already been awake for 1 1/2 hours at this point, so the fact that I even heard it and noticed something amiss is a miracle!). The coffee seems to be bubbling up under the decanter on the hot plate. Hmmm. I took the pot by the handle and lifted it off the burner, and proceeded to wipe up some of the spill and ascertain the origin of the mess. At this point, I realize that the coffee is still dripping off the decanter, but I have wiped it clean. Not good . Aha! There is a crack ! A crack ! In the decanter ! WHAT?!?! I spin around crazily for half a second contemplating how to proceed as I watch in a panic as my life-giving force is draining out of the pot and onto the counte...

Whew, has it been that long since I posted something?? Sorry about that. I know you all missed me! :-) It has been a busy week, and mostly I am sleep-deprived. The unspoken law of families with multiple children is apparently that at least one child must rise before the sun each day. It never fails. I need to find out the code for that command so I can break it! Well, Quin is officially a kindergartener now! We are all done with preschool. We had graduation and his preschool program. Yes, I actually teared up at the graduation... surprised me, I can tell you that! Clearly, I am frightened about homeschooling to be crying over him finishing preschool! (just kidding, calm down) His ceremony was cute!! The best part was watching the other parents' reactions to the Tutti Ta song. I guess, unless you've worked in preschool, this is not part of your repertoire. It is a good one, though, and every preschooler loves it!! (Beck, does Cameron still do it for you?) Anyway, th...

Today is the day that we celebrate mothers. Mothers who get too little sleep, too little privacy, too little quiet, too little appreciation, too little pay (yeah, like NONE!), too little praise, too little education, and too little societal support. Oh, and we get lots of crying, explosions of bodily fluids, tantrums, teething, whining, arguing, sibling rivalry, yelling, and messes. We are an underpaid, under appreciated necessity, and we are too often overlooked as functional members of our society. Honestly, my husband does less at his job than I do at mine. That is obviously not the case in all households, but it is in ours. Working a full-time job was a breeze compared to what I do now! It isn't easy to be a mother, but it is a lot harder to be a bad mother with rotten kids, so I will do what I can to keep my kids from being rotten. Sure, they'll need therapy for something horrible I have done or will do to them, but they will be the product of my constant, conscious ...

So, in order to be relatively certain I would have a day of rest on my Mother's Day, I put my children to work all week. We scrubbed bathrooms, we laundered clothes, we swept and mopped, we did dishes, we organized, we threw stuff away (without looking at some of it, which just works better!), we tidied, and we laundered some more. Finally, tonight, as I look around, I can honestly say that I have done all I can do to make my Mother's Day as restful as possible... well, you know I have three children, so how restful can it be??? With the housework aside, Mother's Day will be a day to just be Mommy. Not maid. Not cook. Not laundress. Just Mommy . Ever since I can remember, I had one major dream in life: to be a wife and mother. It seems in today's society, those roles don't always hold the esteem they should. Being a wife is the closest thing to being a saint that I have ever heard of (joking... sort of), and being a mother gives me a front-row seat in heaven...

You all should really support Vanderbilt Children's Hospital... we do. We support their pediatric endocrinology department, and their pediatric gastroenterology department, and now their pediatric neurology and sleep study department. Yes, we took Dania for her neurology appointment today. It was at 8:30 a.m. - which meant, with traffic, we had to leave at 7:15. So, of course, Dania decided not to wake up at 6 a.m. today. No, today, she slept until I woke her - at 7:10! How is that fair!?!? Well, it may not be fair, but it sure never fails! Anyway, we saw the pediatric neurology medical student, then the neurologist and the medical student, then they rounded up the sleep study doctor, and we saw him and the medical student, then all three of the doctors saw us before they sent in a nurse with our paperwork. Whew! Almost 2 hours and 3 doctors later, we left with 2 more appointments: one for a sleep study on the 19th, and one for a follow-up to discuss the results of the slee...

I have recently discovered that though we yearn for sunny weather as winter draws to a close, we also need foul weather to balance out our lives. As a full-time mother, my children and I spend most of our time in our house - well, until the weather is nice, at which point, we spend most of our time outside of our house. Which is all good. Really. Not a problem. Well, it isn't a problem until the inside of the house has been so uninhabited as to be neglected. So, today, we welcomed the rain. Well, okay, I welcomed the rain. The kids just had to deal with a day indoors. I shoveled off the master bath vanity, scrubbed the dickens out of that room in general, washed linens (remember, there is always laundry to do), emptied the top of the refrigerator, reorganized the stuff that lives on the kitchen counters (hello, file 13!), made homemade meatballs and spaghetti sauce for dinner, emptied and ran the dishwasher, and generally tidied up. I tidied so much that my inattentive hu...

So, it seems like every time my son goes to preschool these days, there is yet another notice asking for something - money, usually. Yesterday, I brought in what I thought was my final $5... I mean, come on, people, we have less than 2 weeks of school left! Oh, right, sure, like that was gonna happen. I get to the door to see, not one, but TWO more things I have to bring: one more notice asking for money, and one more sign-up sheet asking me to bring something for a party! AAAKK! I do not mind that we parents help out with all this stuff so much, but to have so much of it concentrated in the last two weeks is a bit ridiculous! Really, can't someone put up a list of every thing we will need to do at the beginning of the month or something?? The way we are being asked for one thing at a time may seem kinder to some, but to me, the Perpetual Forgetful Mother, I can't get caught up!! Just when I think I have everything paid in full, there is another note on the door!! Have ...

Have you ever given much thought to what you would leave behind if you died today? I am thinking about that as I spend my day sorting through another person's belongings: what to keep for her children, what to keep for a family member, what can I use, what can be sold, what is trash? It is amazing the things people value above others, and we all value slightly different things. And the things you leave behind tell a story to those sorting through it all. A carefully wrapped vase indicates a sentiment for the item or the occasion that brought it into possession. A carelessly discarded book cries out its insignificance. The painstakingly wrapped and packed box of framed photographs tells of a love for the lives they captured. A sink full of dirty dishes speaks of someone who values things outside of a clean kitchen. And a child's faded bicycle tells of a toy that was either well-used or ill-tended. What would your story be? Mine would shout from the moment you enter: Warni...

Did anyone watch the weather for Middle Tennessee today? No? Well, let me tell you about our field trip to the zoo! We arrived to discover that almost every other school group of pre-kindergarten through second grade children decided to go to the zoo today! Our first view of the zoo was of the PACKED parking lot, to the side of which we saw two things: more than a dozen big, yellow school buses; and so many groups of children gathering before the entrance that the entryway was concealed from view! After delving into the fray, we parked our minivan and headed up to find our group. (Let me interject here that my children and I had created matching shirts to help us stay together and identify each other should we become lost. This was more wise than even we knew when we decided to make them! Luckily, no other school group had quite our shade of sunshine yellow, so we were good to go!!) Okay, into the zoo we go! The kids are excited! The animals are awesome! And, the rain is begin...

I have finally succumbed to the kids' desire to play with sand! I have married my knowledge of sandbox disease, my dislike of the gritty stuff personally, and my children's longing for sand to play with and have come up with a workable solution: a plastic under-bed box with a lid. Seems simple, doesn't it? Well, it is, and it works! So, we introduced the sand "box" last weekend, and we store it in the garage all covered up. We only play with it outside, with bare feet or Crocs on, and we wash off before or as soon as we come in. The good news is that the kids now think I am the best Mom ever. The great news is that for the 20 minutes we play in sand, Dania stays by the box and doesn't dart into the street!! It is the most relaxing 20 minutes outside of naptime! So, folks, it's a hit! Sand in a box with a lid under strict regulations is quite fun for all. See? You can be an anal, obsessive Mommy and still let your kids have fun! (And I even let th...