Friends that are Family

I am so grateful to my friends, who love and support this family of mine.

The ones who take my boys off my hands, when I am close to losing it. The ones who invite us over, even though there are usually at least seven of us. The ones that are brave enough to venture out with us in public, even though it's usually a scene. The ones that offer to babysit all day on a Friday, and all weekend, so that my husband and I can get away. The ones who change their plans, to accommodate us. The ones that save us seats during movies because we are always late. The ones that remember we're still adults and individuals, not just parents. The ones that know we can't do it alone.

Thanks for making this life we've chosen so special for us and our family, all of our surrogate "aunts" and "uncles", some of you, my children truly believe we are really related by blood, and as far as I'm concerned we are. Thank you...thank you...thank you, for the love you shower our family with, and for the influence you have on my children

Mother of the Year!

Yes, that's me! I should be mother of the year. How many other mothers tape broken lollipop sticks back together? Really it's more like this...I'd do anything to stop the crying and whining, even if it's only in two minute increments.

A few days ago my "Mom's Group" met at a local park. We've spent the winter at indoor playgrounds and pay-to-play facilities trying to be the best mother's we could possibly be. These play dates always turn out to be incredibly stressful, overwhelming events for me, I always leave feeling terribly guilty, burdened and exhausted, and typically covered in ranch dressing and orange soda. We thought it would be a nice way for our children to get some fresh air and enjoy some of the wonders of nature. After carefully choosing the park, for it's safety features; least likely place for our children to get run over, or escape from, etc., we embarked on an hour of fun. We spent that hour like the border patrol- walking the perimeter of the park, checking our cell phones for the time- wishing for our watch to be up. Not only did we not want our children to escape, but we needed to make sure their cheeks didn't touch the drinking fountains, and their boy parts didn't touch the toilet bowl, and they used hand sanitizer before they ate their apples.

Now I ask this question, how long do you have to stay at the park, before you can say "you went to the park"? Is it 20 minutes, is it 30, or a whole hour or more? As mothers, must we beat ourselves up trying to be "Mother of the Year", comparing ourselves to everyone else, afraid if we don't take our children to the park everyday, that we will be considered bad mothers?

Last night, after a crazy day, and evening, I did something I rarely do, at 10 o'clock - well past every one's bedtime, including my own , I lay in bed with all five of my boys and read stories front to back and back to front, over and over again. For the first time all week, I was overcome with motherhood, and the emotions that go with it. I wasn't stressed, or overwhelmed, I wasn't worried that someone would get run over, or catch the swine flu, and I didn't care what anyone else thought, I didn't watch the clock to see if it had been long enough. I simply basked in the love of my children.

I'm a blogger

Well, today is the day that I officially stopped talking and started writing, thanks mostly to the encouragement from my friends Suzan and LuAnn. Although most of the time,I feel as though I don't have anything to talk about, let alone write about. Not to mention my lack of time and my lack of enthusiasm. My kids seem to suck it all out me, like five hungry vampires. This weekend I'm feeling particularly drained without Rick here to do this dance with me. He's been in MANtana since Wednesday and I am counting the minutes until his plane lands at 8 o'clock. I've stooped to giving the boys cold cereal for dinner, because the thought of cooking anything in a pan actually evokes a painful physical reaction .

I plan to write more thoughtful postings in the future, ones that some of you may actually care to read, but for now, let's see how this works.