Sunday Scribblings-Powerful

Today's Sunday Scribblings is on the word powerful. When do you/have you felt powerful and what does that mean.

For me, I had to think long and hard. I have not felt powerful since my kids were born. It's an amazing thing, becoming a mother for the first time. That feeling of powerful and powerless hit you at the exact same moment. Your thoughts range from, "I can shape this child" to "how am I going to shape this child?" all within five minutes of each other.

To say when was the last time I felt really powerful that I can do anything had to be when I took a trip before I got married in 2001. I toured the world for nine weeks prior to moving to Dallas.

All that planning. Where do I want to go from here? I just took a world map and thought, where have I always wanted to go? The world was at my disposal.

The trip started with a wedding in India with my dearest Joseph Legaspi. JoJo and I decided to take three weeks to tour India. We ended in Bombay. From there, I went to Singapore and then Australia for a couple of weeks. Then, off to Korea and Japan.

Touring all those places by myself is such a scary undertaking. It makes you really force yourself to be the bravest and strongest person you can. In short, your most powerful you.

Why does The Office make me pee in my pants?

I swear, that show gets better and better. I'm wondering when it will hit its pinnacle! I hope none too soon.

My favorite line from last night was said by the Steve Carrell character, Michael Scott, "I'm not superstitious, but I'm a little bit stitious."

They must have had that stowed away for YEARS until they could use it.

Classic The Office. If you don't watch, you should.

She Speaks!

She speaks!!! Today, I came home from picking up Jack at school and Eva said her first "real" word! For a while, she would babble at us, ma ma ma and da da da. She could even make a sound that sounds alot like "Jack."

Today, I walked in the door, Eva was sitting in her high chair, she looked dead at me, smiled and said clear as day, "hola!"

Gotta love Texas.

Quiet Reading Corner

This weekend, when I was off at a friend's wedding, I had the chance to finish What Mothers Do Especially When It Looks Like Nothing by Naomi Stadlen.

In reading this, I was thrown back to a couple of years ago when Jack was small. I would be at home and wonder, what did I do all day? I'm sure that I did something but when Jon came home, all I could mutter would be things like, "Totally exhausted. Here's son. Must sleep." God love Jon, he would ask with genuine interest in helping me cope better, "what made this day so exhausting?" I had no way to tell him why I was so tired.

I wish back then, someone had given me this book. This book was the voice that I did not have three years ago when dealing with my newborn son.

Told through interviews with mothers in London, Naomi Stadlen shows us exactly WHAT we do during the day. I swear, she must have heard me speaking to my friends at some point because so many of the quotes sounded just as if I had said them.

She makes many points in the book but one that really struck me is the uncertainty that so many mothers have about raising their children and the fact that so many books have conflicting information in them. Of course, we put so much pressure on ourselves to be the best parent we can. So, to whom do we turn for advice? We turn to books. This can be the most frustrating course of action.

What Mothers Do is a calming force in the sea of parenting books. It shows us how we are terrific parents and that we are not alone. It does not try to give us advice on whether or not we should let our babies cry but rather shows us that no matter whether or not we let our babies cry, each tiny decision we make on behalf of our children during the day is definitely not nothing.

Possum Watch-Day 2

Still no sign of the little bugger. Am thinking that the corn might need to be off the cobb. Will try tonight.

Possum Watch-Day 1

Tip-toed out this morning to see if I had any animals. Corn was off the trap and only one side was closed. Must have set the trap wrong. DARN! My adventure continues...

Fight at School

Jack comes home today and tells me about a scuffle he had with another student, James. Now, I have met James and think he is probably the most mild-mannered child on the planet and can only assume that Jack was somehow at fault.

So, I probe Jack further. Jack, why did James hit you?

"Mommy, because I called him Chad" What? "Yes, James wants to be called James and not Chad but I kept calling him Chad over and over." "He asked me to stop, I said, no, Chad, I will keep calling you Chad." This goes on for a while. I ask more questions and am just perplexed by the situation.

While he keeps telling me that he kept calling him Chad over and over, I was thinking why Chad? Does he even know a Chad? Is Chad on his soccer team? His yoga class?

Finally, I asked Jack if he called him Chad after another kid in school.

Jack looked at me and said, "No, Mommy. Chad like the country!!!"

How stupid of me not to think of that first. I guess I had better spring for that world map. I swear, sometimes, he's too smart for a three-year old. I think I'm in for it.

There's a Monster in My Hamper

Yesterday, I came home from work VERY happy and content. As I pulled in the driveway, Jack came bursting out of the house saying, "Mommy! There's a monster in your hamper!!" To Jack, a monster could be a cockroach (which by the way, he likes to call by their proper spanish name "cucaracha"--on a side note, is that what that song is about??? But I digress...).

I put down my stuff and say to Jack, ok, I'll take care of the "monster." I look in my three-foot tall hamper only to have a pair of beady eyes looking back. A possum had invaded my laundry hamper.

I immediately grab Jack out of the laundry room and shaking, call our handy man, Dub. Dub says, he can come get him tomorrow, if I would like, and get rid of him. If he's escaped, he'll set a trap for him.

Escaped??!!! Into my laundry room??!!! I must get the hamper out of my laundry room.

In the middle of the night outside of my window I hear, tink--tink--tink--crash. My beady-eyed friend escaped.

Dub came this morning to set a trap. He then tells me that once we have him again, all Jon has to do is put the trap in the car, drive it to the lake and let him go.

Sure, I said, but Jon is in London.

Wait. You can't mean that I HAVE TO PUT IT IN MY CAR AND TAKE IT TO THE LAKE???!!!
You know, this is why we live in town so that we don't have critters coming into our homes. Guess living this close to the park has its drawbacks.

Dub assures me that once I open the trap, the animal (whatever kind I have caught) will then run the other way. Yeah right. That's REALLY comforting.

Time to get my big-girl panties on.... (to be continued)

Sunday Scribblings-Writing

This week the Sunday Scribblings is on writing. What do you think of when you think of writing?

Me? I think of my dad and my grandmother.

I think of all those years in school when I was a terrible writer (read: I do not care about school, why are you making me go?) Not only did I have tough teachers at school, I had a tough teacher at home, my ninja grammarian-former-english-and-latin- teaching father.

I can't recall the number of reports that I gave to my dad to proof only to have them completely re-written in red ink. Even to this day, my father is my #1 choice for grammar questions. He proofs nearly all my work (except for this website-ha ha) Now, instead of red ink, he can use word's red font. Things have not changed all that much.

Daddy came by his grammar snobbery honestly. He got it from the second-most wonderful woman to have ever walked on this planet, his mother (of course, mine being the most wonderful).

We called her Bama. She had the sharpest wit and could reduce you to tears of laughter from any one of her many hilarious life stories. But, Bama could shame anyone on grammar. She was the absolute authority. Just to be sure we knew what we were saying, she used to give us pop-quizzes. Phone conversations would begin like this, "Binky, tell me why you use the word 'lie' instead of 'lay' when you are going to lie down?" Uh, Bama, I was just calling to ask you to my choral recital but since you asked....

I am thankful to them both for making me love writing as much as I do now. They made me and still make me want to be a better writer.

So, the pop-quizzes live on in my house. My poor husband and children. Additionally, I find myself using many of her sayings. "Hey Mom! I'm done with dinner!" "Done with dinner? What are you, a turkey? Honey, it's finished."

Somewhere far away, I'm sure that she's smiling.

Little Big Man

Here's Jack in his school uniform. Sniff, sniff....

Eva's Eyebrows

Someone told me the other day that Eva had perfect eyebrows. They then asked me where I had them "done." I have to say, I just stood there in shock.

Here's my question. Is there a market to wax or pluck eyebrows of 10-month olds? What kind of mother would sign up for those?

Oh, yes, mam, I have an at home treatment. I put scalding wax on Eva's face and then rip the hairs from her skin twice per month. She cries a little but don't you just love the results?

I'm Published!

This is so exciting for me. I had my first article published in our newspaper, North Texas Kids. It is, oddly enough, on Mothers who blog. We distribute 50,000 newspapers in the Dallas area.

Anyway, take a peek here and let me know what you think!