Wednesday, March 11, 2009

When to Meddle

With attachment style parenting there is supposed to come a sense of independence. A sense that you have helped this child build a boat, set the sails and now it is up to him to sail off into his future. Nice visual hmm? Well, let me tell you. This mommy wants to be a damn anchor. I'm not ready. Not ready to see that ship sail off with my damn baby on it! I still want to be the captain and set the course. Of course, I wouldn't mind it if he swabbed the deck now and again. But I am NOT ready to see him take the helm. These are, of course, my lessons to learn. Not his.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Show Time

I have a show today. I have been working so much less this year than last. It's nice. It is nice to feel so comfortable and relaxed and know that I will still have money coming in.
The Blondie boy is up with a friend snowboarding. The Older boy is sitting on the couch playing video games with the Littlest one watching.
Bling Daddy just got up and is not really making noises yet. Well, he is, but they are unintelligible. Sending Blondie up to the mountains to ride makes me so happy. He is such an active kid and he loves to move his body. Since we are NOT a physically active family, it's nice that he has friends who are!
This is one of those hopeful days. One of those days that is full of promise. Promise that the summer will be here soon. Hope that it will be as fun as the summers we've had before. Promise that tonight the sun will be up an hour longer. Hope that we will soon be sitting outside in the evenings on the swing. Promise that once again, our trees will turn green and our garden will grow.
I am getting ahead of myself with summer. We still get to enjoy spring first! We are going up to Portland for Spring Break again this year. We will spend a weekend at the beach with the entire family in the same great, huge house we always do. The kids will ride their boards to the beach and goof around in the little town of Seaside. The moms and grandmas and nieces will shop in the stores and laugh and drink cocktails at any hour they choose. The Dads and Uncles will grouse about the women shopping and sit around and watch horrible TV. All of the menfolk will go to the Arcade and play stupid video games. And we will ALL eat elephant ears. Nasty, sticky, sweet elephant ears.
Then we'll go to Granmda's house and she'll cook too much and we'll eat too much. Grandma and I will knit. This time I want to knit a scarf that my sweet friend Jessica made for me. Grandma will love it and so will all of her Christmas gift recipients. Grandma and I love to knit and that is where all of the family stories come out. This will be our first visit since Grandpa died. We'll miss him so much. At the end of our visit, the whole family will drive up to The Lake house and put Grandpa's ashes into the lake he loved for most of his life. Then we'll have dinner at Pine Hollow to celebrate.
All very predictable, all very hopeful and all building family memories.
After what our community and our friends and family have been through this past year, it is ever clear how important these family memories are. It's a short time we have with one another, whether it is 2 years, or 89 years. It is too short. Cherish every moment.

A Fresh Spring Day

The first day of springing forward. A fresh day for a fresh new blog. The entire family is still asleep and I am snuggled under a blanket with the dog on my feet and a nice warm laptop on my, well... my lap. The dog irritates me. The laptop I love.
This is a new blog for me. I have an older one but I don't know how to incorporate it here. Perhaps I'll figure it out.
The goal for me on this blog is to vent, mentor, listen and learn. The name came to me because I needed a way to meld my two worlds together. The world of my family and my business. My family, and this includes my immediate family as well as my mom and dad, have a tradition of making a family sandwich. I'm sure your family does it too, but it is one of those fun, quirky traditions that help define us and our humor. The parents are the bread and the children are the filling. We all climb in bed on a lazy Sunday morning and build a sandwich together. Sunday mornings are more difficult now as that is when I do my shows and by the time everyone is up and ready to roll, I'm half way out the door. The bodies are bigger too which makes it tough, but we can still pull it off occasionally.
I sling bling for a living. That is, I sell a line of jewelry called Cookie Lee. I love the jewelry and I do love the flexibility of my job. I love that I can make money making my own hours and still attend baseball/basketball/football/golf practice and games. I have three young boys, two of whom play every sport there is to play. My oldest child has decided that he does not want to play football this coming year and is still trying to decide what exactly it is he does want to do. My buiness allows me to still be at home with them when my husband travels and work when he is home to take over parenting duties.
These are tough times to be sure. My income is more important than ever for us to continue to live the way we live and support everything our kids want to do. I feel very grateful that I have this under my belt. That for over 3 years my business had paid for every extra activity our kids have wanted to participate in, as well as two all expenses paid trips for me and the Bling Daddy.
I'm looking forward to my future and the rest of the perks that come with being a Bling Mommy.