Archives For November 30, 1999
I want to travel and see parts of the country (dare I say, world?) as I continue to grow. I sometimes beat myself up for having not expanded my horizons when I was young and able to move more freely.
And while I realize reading about faraway places isn’t nearly as fulfilling as living and breathing them in, some of the blogs I follow have given me glimpses into parts of the world I have never visited. I love reading certain blogs not only for their narrative, but also for their ability to expose me to the unknown.
This made me wonder if anyone who happens to stumble upon (or, best case scenario, follow?) my blog enjoys it partially because my world is so different from theirs.
It’s Husker football game night and our fam is camped in front of the TV shouting at the screen with the false belief we can influence the game. As the University of Nebraska-Lincoln fight song boasts, “There is no place like Nebraska.” This makes me laugh as I imagine parts of Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas aren’t that foreign from our state.
I didn’t have an ocean to walk alongside today. No (literal) mountains to climb. Not a single traffic jam to stew in.
Instead, I got to run and clear my mind. At the risk of furthering the stereotype that we have nothing but farmland here, I took some pictures of…you guessed it…
Fall horizon. I beg for the tolerable temps to remain as long as possible.
I live within a city that borders along countryside. My favorite part of the run is looking out to a lifestyle I’ve never lived.
Not sure why these images remind me of a song about Tennessee, but I’ll leave this for you to enjoy as well.
Don’t we all want to stop living with doubt?
Leave a comment about where you’re from. I’d love to learn more about your little part of the world.
Created by Heidi Woodard
I am a female in my mid-30s. I don’t know if other women my age had the same grand scheme in their minds as I did of how life should unfold.
I knew I wanted to be a mom. Because it’s sweet to be a mom! And playing mommy was always fun, right?!
One of my babies…walking her babies.
You know what else moms are? Bat-sh+t crazy.
After spending all day listening to my three arguing over who’s right, screaming out in delight over the dumbest things, questioning everything I said, ignoring my pleas to hurry up, and tormenting each other because the only thing that’s worse than being together with your siblings is having to spend time apart with (gasp!) no imagination or ability to entertain yourself, I reached my boiling point.
I looked them straight in the eye and said:
“Look at me. Look at me. LOOK AT ME!!”
“I don’t care what you do when we get home, but I don’t want to see or hear you. So find something to do and don’t bother each other.”
They looked up at me and their eyes said what their mouths didn’t. “Ok, mom. You’re mean. Whatever.”
And you know what? Mean mom didn’t feel a tinge of guilt. Because while mean mom was shopping for a new shower curtain earlier in the day, she witnessed the little angel pictured above actually lick the floor of Target because her oldest brother told her to. (No I didn’t! Yes you did. So shut it.)
Off to the second store. Mean mom then visited Nobbies with the same brother in the hopes of finding a scary costume that not only fits his coolness standards, but also isn’t inappropriate for school. Because THAT’S possible.
Did I mention this impossible-to-please-mini-version-of-my-husband expects to walk into a store and have a costume magically appear in front of him within minutes without exerting any effort? So after I made him ask the store clerk (eye roll…followed by exasperated sigh) about whether or not a particular overpriced costume he liked was in stock, we learned it was not. Forty five minutes later, we walked out empty handed and defeated.
That got us through lunch time.
Following our refueling, I thought it would be a grand idea to get them out of my face take them all to the park for some exercise. No less then 20 minutes later, one kid had to poop. Return home. Head out to park number two. New scenery, different kid, same scenario.
(I didn’t HAVE to poop when we got home the first time. Yes you did. So shut it.)
It was during the final trip home when I gave them direct orders to stay far, far away from me if they knew what was good for them.
They obliged, I grabbed a bottled sangria, and plopped myself down to blog it out – spilling my thoughts to you, my online therapists.
No matter how ready you feel you are, no woman is ever adequately prepared to calmly raise children. And that’s ok. Because unlike every other scenario we face in our adult lives, we get a chance to begin anew everyday.
And those floor-licking, eye-rolling, constantly-pooping beings are ready to forgive and forget their mean mom.
maternalmedia 