Category: happiness

children, gratitude, happiness, kids, marriage, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Cupcakes and Picnics

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With Mad Dog away, in the evening I have decided to watch the Sound of Music with the boys.  Each night we curl up in our loft and watch the adventures of Maria unfold.

It seems they are enjoying it.  Full Speed woke up on Monday singing “How do you solve a problem like, Mari-aaah?”  He also is growing quite a crush on the littlest Von Trapp, Gretel.  “Mom, she’s so cute.”

T.Puzzle, well, he loves anything musical.  That is how I know we are related.

As the Von Trapp children traipsed through the fields of the Austrian mountains, Full Speed was very concerned that they left their picnic food unattended.

“Who is going to clean that up?” he wondered.  He’s not at all phased that the cast breaks into spontaneous song or that they end up in 47 different locations during the song’s 4 minute montage.  Nope.  He’s worried about the picnic.  In fact, he’d really like a picinic.

T.Puzzle wants one, too.  He would like to have chicken and cupcakes on the menu.

Do-Ray-Me-Fa-So it looks like a picnic may be in our future.

Know any good cupcake recipes?  I bet Maria would.  If nothing else, maybe I’ll break into song about it later.

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children, gratitude, happiness, kids, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Eye of the Tiger

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It finally happened.  Mad Dog now has an office less than five minutes from our house.

Since Mad Dog seems to struggle with work/life balance, this should help him considerably.  I hope he uses his saved commute time for good and not… more work.

Either way, it’s nice to know that he is nearby even if we can’t see him.

T.Puzzle and Full Speed were thrilled as we dropped Mad Dog at his new office.

“When are you taking me to work, Daddy?” asked T.Puzzle.  Apparently working with Dad is pretty amazing.  There’s work, there’s time to play with matchbox cars and don’t forget the best part which is a hot breakfast.

We said our goodbyes and as we drove away I explained that in the evening we would be able to pick up Mad Dog from work and go to dinner as a family.

“It’s a good thing we are going to get him, Mom,” Full Speed said.  “He’s not going to be able to see.”

“Why is that, Full Speed?”

“It will be dark and dangerous.  There might be tigers hiding in the trees that could get him, too.”

I had no idea the neighborhood we lived in is teeming with such danger.

I have called Mad Dog many things (most of them good), but tiger bait, well, that’s definitely a new one.

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gratitude, happiness, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting, self-discovery

Choices

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In life you can’t choose your family.   You are born into a family and all its complicated dynamics whether you are ready for it or not.  If you decide at some point to have children of your own, the only thing you control is who you choose to help you parent this family.   Sometimes, circumstances make this choice seem impossible as well.

So what can you do?

You could spend your days wishing you were someone else.

Or, you could look at your life, accept it for what it is and be thankful for the ways, even the smallest ways, that you can make a choice.

Today, I am choosing to look at all the ways that my life and family are good.  I can say I am truly thankful to have two, wild rambunctious boys that keep my life crazy but ultimately undeniably interesting.  I am thankful to have a true partner in Mad Dog.  To know he’s got my back will carry me through anything.

I realized if all I do is look at my life as a disaster, then that is exactly what I will find.

If I choose to look at how amazing it is in this very moment, that might be exactly what I find, too.

What choice would you make?

children, happiness, humor, kids, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Clean Slate

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If you are new to this blog, meet Full Speed and T.Puzzle. The most calm and quiet brothers you will ever know who always, always behave. For everyone else, please disregard my previous posts. It's time to wipe the slate clean.

We made it.  To IHOP that is.  The boys were well behaved, the food good and we met some friends there as well.

Full Speed and T.Puzzle were excellent.

Let me repeat that.

Full Speed and T.Puzzle were excellent.

We went to Full Speed’s book fair after IHOP and you will never guess.  They were excellent there, too.  I mean really, really good.  It was swarming with people and chaos.  They never wandered far from my side and patiently ( yes, that’s right, I said patiently) waited in the very long line to purchase our books.

You could have knocked me over with a feather.

We came home, got in our pjs and curled up to read our new books.

I couldn’t have written a better ending to our night so I won’t.

The. End.

children, happiness, humor, kids, kindergarten, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Here’s Hoping…

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The IHOP logo
Image via Wikipedia

I’m feeling nervous.  I have been cracking down on the boys and their behavior and frankly, the only thing that is close to cracking is me.  But that’s not why I’m nervous.

I told Full Speed and T.Puzzle that they need excellent reports from school so we can go to IHOP for dinner.  No exceptions.  I need a ‘blue’ day from Full Speed, blue being the absolute best mark you can get in kindergarten, and I need an excellent report from T.Puzzle’s teacher.   If not, no pancakes no how.

So you see I’m nervous because I don’t want to have to follow through with my threat.  It’s not that I’m jonesing for pancakes for dinner.  It’s that I’m jonesing for my kitchen to remain mess-free.

However, I guess the real punishment if I get negative school reports won’t be so much that the boys won’t go to IHOP and my kitchen will be messy, but that I would have to cook for them.

Poor dears.

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