"How's the campaign going?"
It's the question I get most often. It's also the question I'm never quite sure how to answer.
Good? ... Great! ... Your guess is as good as mine. ... We'll see May 17th!
The truth - I suppose - all depends on what you're measuring.
This weekend we hosted a Winter ONE-derland party in honor of Felix's first birthday. Considering this child was born during a snow, it seemed like an appropriate theme. Well, the weather had other plans and it was 70 and sunny! I could have hosted the dang party outside!
For my 30th birthday, I created a list of 30 things I wanted to do. One was to write a historical fiction short story. This is the story and as Ruby keeps calling to me here lately. I thought I'd share it here.
One of Nicholas's New Year's resolutions was to try freezer meals. He'd prepped meals for the week on and off through 2015 and wanted to see how it would work to prepare an entire month's worth. Then, we could just pull a meal from the deep freeze, throw it in the crockpot, and on a busy day dinner would be waiting for us.
This post is sponsored by Minted.
Have you ever gotten a holiday card or birth announcement or wedding invitation so gorgeous you think to yourself, “I should frame this hang it on the wall!”
I have and I’ve noticed a pattern evolving. These beautiful paper products often come from Minted. So, imagine my excitement when I learned that Minted has entered the world of wall art.
Another day, another study telling us something we previously considered “safe” is anything but.
This time a study out of Denmark found a strong correlation between acetaminophen use among pregnancy women and higher rates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in their children. We all know correlation isn't causation, but still here's a drug that is considered one of the safest on the markets (although I would have disagreed with that assessment before this study) suddenly seeming more complicated then we first thought.
I have a deep distrust of medication or medical treatment considered “safe” during pregnancy. It is unethical to test things on pregnant women, no one is going to sign up to use themselves and their babies as guinea pigs. Therefore, true safety can never really be established. However, it goes beyond that for me. If I'm being honest, I have a deep distrust of medical care generally.
Once when reading an interview with the eternally fantastic Bonnie Raitt, I stumbled upon this quote.
On her two-year hiatus:
Who would have thought that rest was a sacred act? A therapist I love said, “Only go as fast as the slowest part of you can go.”
It’s a lesson I have to learn over and over again. A lesson I learned again this week when struck with the stomach virus from hell.
Today I'm on Her Kentucky sharing where my dreams of public office began.
I remember the first time I considered public office. I was in high school and I was obsessed with Barbra Streisand. I thought it was because I wanted to be an actress. Then, I realized what I really loved about her was her political activism. She seemed to care. People listened to her opinions on important issues.
Now, I realize that Barbra Streisand is a unique choice as a political role model but hey I was 15.
Read the rest on Her Kentucky!
I also wrote my first blog post on the blog for Emerge Kentucky on meeting awesome female legislators in Frankfort.
There is dreaming about leadership. There is planning for leadership. There is being trained for leadership.
Then, there is actually engaging with current women leaders.
Let’s just get this out of the way. I don’t want him to go.
There, I said it.
He’s my firstborn. He’s my baby. He still runs up to me for hugs and loves to cuddle and I don’t want him to go to kindergarten. And yet here I am, setting up appointments for kindergarten screenings, getting to know the teachers, figuring out who will be in his class.
And all against my will.
I remember vividly the first week Griffin was born. For one reason or another, I had attached special importance to the first week. I could feel every second tick by. I wanted to dig in and slow everything down. I knew. I just KNEW once that first precious week was over that it was going to be three blinks and I’d be putting him on the bus to kindergarten. A rush of diapers and blocks and preschool parties and my long days with him would be over.
AND I WAS RIGHT.
I know kindergarten is even worse. Once they spend a majority of their day elsewhere, the time you do have with them passes even quicker. If his babyhood passed in three blinks, his primary school days will pass in one. Then, I’ll be balling my eyes out as he walks the stage at graduation and moves far away to follow his dreams and never calls his mama.
This is the worst.
What I hate more than the thought of how quickly the time will pass is how quickly he will change. My friends report the same phenomenon over and over again. They go to kindergarten and they change. They are no longer your sweet little kid. They grow a little bit harder and edgier. They pick up bad habits from their friends. They might as well be describing a person’s first time in prison.
I don’t want him to change! I want him to grow and learn and develop but does that have to be in exchange for attitude and sass and disrespect. If I’m being really honest, I want to protect him. I know there will be kids different from him in school. Kids that have seen and experienced things I’ve spent the last four years protecting Griffin from and that scares me.
Not because I don’t think he should ever learn to confront these types of challenges or deal with people different than him, but because I don’t really want him to learn these lessons at FIVE.
My logical mind tells me he’ll be fine. My friend’s kids are fine. They are better than fine. They are really great kids. But still, I just can’t get behind the positivity.
So, if I grimace at your encouragement or frown at your kindergarten stories, give me a pass.
This mama is wallowing. This mama is singing the kindergarten blues and she’s singing them hard.
How did you (or are you) handling the transition to kindergarten?
Kristen Howerton, a blogger I very much respect, recently wrote a post on her blog Rage Against the Minivan addressing Dylan Farrow’s open letter on NYTimes.com and the subsequent reaction. Dylan Farrow, the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, broke her silence and publicly shared her story of abuse at the hands of Allen. Her letter has reopened the debate surrounding not only Allen’s guilt but our treatment of sexual abuse victims.
For her part, Kristen makes her point very clear.
This week is Children’s Authors and Illustrators Week. Before having my kids, I think I could probably identify one children’s author by name. Dr. Seuss. I always saw the books as individual works until I started reading 2-3 a night and became a bit of an expert. Now, I’ve found there are children’s authors who I go back to over and over again for engaging stories and beautiful words.
Mo Willems My absolute favorite children’s author (excluding Dr. Seuss of course), Mo Willems’s stories hilariously capture the frustration of a pigeon constantly being told what it can’t do. Obviously, most kids can identify. We are also huge fans of his Elephant and Piggie series. The first time I read There’s A Bird On Your Head I thought Griffin was going to faint he was laughing so hard. To this day, it’s the hardest I’ve ever seen him laugh.
Ann Dewdney Our family loves any story that begins llama llama. Hooked since the little llama was wearing red pajamas, we’ve followed Dewdney and her little llama through the store, the first day of school, and beyond. I think Dewdney is particularly adept at handling conflicts between parents and kids with sympathy and understanding for both sides.
James Dean The voice behind the indomitable Pete the Cat, Dean perfectly conveys this funky little cat’s can-do spirit be it on the playground or in a mud puddle.
Doreen Cronin The only character that can make Griffin laugh harder than that crazy pigeon is the ever-scheming Duck of Cronin’s barnyard stories.
Who are your favorite children’s authors?
