Monday, November 22, 2010

Fuuuuuuuccccckkkkkk.

So todays to-do list:

Deal with the fact that it is Monday - check

Ice on driveway - check

Fall on driveway with sexy boots on - check

No longer feel sexy - check

Ice all over van - check

One ice scraper, two girls who want to help scrape - check

One five year falling right on her ass in a puddle - check

One five year not wearing splash pants because I was in too much of a rush to put them on her - check

Get to school and realize the back up pants I packed are actually the 8 year olds skinny jeans - check

5 year old takes about 10 hours putting on the back up pants - check

The nice man who treats me to valet parking at my lot is not in today - check

I have to park in the shittiest pot holiest spot in the lot - check

Get home, make high caloric comfort meal, everyone enjoys it - check (yay! bright spot!)

Get jammies on, 5 year proceeds to remind me that it is her turn to bring the sharing snack tomorrow, and it has to be celery - check

No celery in house - check

Drive to grocery store with 5 year old, 5 year old falls HARD in parking lot - check

5 year old insists on checking for blood by the foggy light in the middle of the parking lot - check

I chose to go to the grocery store in the sketchiest part of the 'hood - check

Tears and snot create dreadlocks in 5 year olds hair - check

Too late for a shampoo, spray untangler spray in wet hair instead - check

Check label, what I actual sprayed in her hair was Banana Boat SPF 30 sunscreen and have to proceed with shower after all - check

Rather than support me, family laughs at me - check

How was your Monday?

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

At least Edie thinks I'm good at something.....

Edie cried in frustration the other day complaining that she wasn't "any
good at anything!" She was in the process of trying to draw high heels on
the princess she just drew, and, well, let's just say the shoes would
satisfy any fetishist with a thing for stilettos. These shoes were bad
ass, but completely inappropriate for a princess (shout out to you Kate
Middleton, congrats on the engagement!)

I cooed and hugged the tears away, and taught her how to draw real princess
shoes - my signature ovals on their side with a line on the back of each of
them. Very smart looking. Edie looked up at me with her big blue eyes, a
solitary tear on the cusp of dropping from her eyelash and told me that I
am the bestest Mommy ever and good at everything I do. I thanked her
graciously, accepting the compliment, but it got me thinking, and the
thinking got me a little depressed. I'm actually not really good at
anything. I'm kinda average at a lot of stuff. I dabble in arts and
crafts, I'm okay at my job, I'm a pretty good Mom (but I get cases of the
yellsitis on occasion) and my next endeavour, to learn how to play bass
guitar (thanks to HellaStella) will likely prove to be another less than
stand out effort. I'm not trying to feel sorry for myself, I just haven't
had that a-ha moment yet dictating what I am great at.

I am good at appreciating other people's amazingness. I have an ear for
music, an eye for art work (and I do consider fashion to be art), and a
great understanding of literature. And I'm good at re-arranging furniture.
Poor Jo will stumble in after hours and bruise his shin on the ottoman that
I just had to move at eleven o'clock at night. But I don't want my
tombstone to read "Good at re-arranging furniture and pretty average at
other stuff".

It makes me a little sad, the older I get, because I know with training,
education and experience I very likely could have been a great at a few different
things that I'm truly passionate about, but I really feel like it is too
late to pursue because a) I'm getting older and b) financially, I just
don't have the luxury of quitting my job to focus on a new career.

Kind of a debbie downer of a post, but this is what is on my mind today.