Tag Archives: motherhood

Looking good as a home school mom

Posted on by
3

Do other mothers worry like I do when out in public?

Edmund happy to use the store’s half shopping cart/half stroller as his personal play toy. Peter chases after Lucy among the racks. Susan laughs at it all. On this Saturday morning, mine the noisiest kids in the uncrowded store. It’s a happy cavorting. Nothing broken, a blouse falling off a hanger quickly set right by Peter.

Yet I wonder.

What does the sales lady think? She’s older, probably a grandmother. I see no eye rolling, no set mouth in a firm line because my gang carouses among the sale blouses. I wish I could read the clerk’s mind.

The mother with only two children following like puddle ducks behind her, I wonder what she thinks of my traveling circus. I hear her scold her boy – he must be about five. Does she cringe at her children’s behavior as she shops?

Am I so sensitive because I feel we need to look good as a home school family?

Am I worried because I want to look good as a mom? As a home schooling mom?

Yes.

And yes.

So I shop faster.

A series of unrelated thoughts

Posted on by
Reply

Random thoughts…

  • Susan is ten years old as of last week. She’s growing into a young lady, so blogging about her is tricky territory now. Excellent blog fodder, the potential for humor and witty snark abound. But she knows how to work the Google, and knows mom has this paperbridges.net thing going on, so no cute tween changing body stories about her.
  • Doc – a man with a vision – is plotting and scheming. I’m just a wife who wants security with a modest shoe budget. That’s all I can say about that right now.
  • My back porch project is moving sloooowly. I decided to extend the porch by adding on a stone patio. Doc wants to do it too, but more work and more time to get it done.
  • Lucy is making me crazy. Apparently I need to be in the same room with her as she poops and pees, forcing me to stop what I’m doing to watch. I’ve tried ignoring her, only to be rewarded with a lake of pee on the bathroom floor. Yes, I said Lake Pee.
  • My first Compassion International presentation is scheduled for July 17 at a Vacation Bible School in Princeton. Starting to feel the pressure of not screwing it up. Thankfully the kids I’m speaking to are… kids. A forgiving audience, in my experience with working with kids. Of course, I want to complicate things by making my own Poverty Wheel, making the talk all hands on and stuff, but at this late date I may have to go with simple.
  • If I can’t get to Blogher, I want to go to GodBlogCon in September. Anyone else going? I’d love to meet you in person. I’m not sure how it’s mom friendly, but I can pretend I’m professional enough to hang with the movers and shakers of the godblogosphere.
  • Last night I dreamt of dropping the kids into public school. Literally. I walked in a classroom, sat them at a table and walked out the door. I spent the rest of the dream arguing with myself, What the heck are you doing? Go get them! The guilt, the internal conflict, that feeling of panic – all too real.
  • Book giveaway time again – but you have to come back tomorrow.

Enjoy your Monday. It’s rainy here and I must go to that shiny (un)happy place were I can do the modern day version of hunting and gathering. Fun and excitement, eh?

Blogher road trip: a fantasy conversation with my husband

Posted on by
6

How cool is this? Moms driving together cross country to get to Blogher ’08 – the biggest* gathering of women bloggers on the planet.

When I first heard about it, back when Jill was looking for moms to participate, my little blogger heart quickened. I love Thelma and Louise (except the driving off the cliff bit in the end). I’ve never driven west past Mississippi. I’m all for hanging out with adventurous mommybloggers.

Mentally, I prepared my pitch to Doc. What fun I would have! The chance of a lifetime!

Here’s how the conversation went:

Me: Guess what! That moms blog group I belong to is looking for moms to drive across the country to get to Blogher! Doesn’t that sound cool! They’re leaving from New York, stopping in major cities to pick up moms along the way. And they’re going to blog about it!

Husband: What’s for dinner?

Okay, to be fair, I don’t remember what he said exactly, but it was definitely along the lines of “Huh?”

Here’s how the conversation went in my head, before I brought it up:

Me: Guess what! That moms blog group I belong to is looking for moms to drive across the country to get to Blogher! Doesn’t…

Husband (interrupting; jumping up in down on the sofa in glee, this crazy excited): Babe, you should totally go! You would love it! I was just reading about Blogher at Kirtsy and was going to surprise you with a plane ticket, but this is so much more fun! Have a great time and don’t worry about the kids, I’ve got it all covered.

Ha.

You can follow the progress of those women lucky/blessed enough to be going on this amazing adventure at this link here. Originally, they were supposed to leave from New York, but it didn’t work out. Maybe next year the trip will start in the Big Apple. I’m going to start working on my husband and childcare arraignments now.

How about you? Do you fancy a road trip with a group of blogger women or would you rather stay home? Or skip the car for a faster airplane?

___

* I don’t think it’s an exaggeration. Anyone have any numbers to back this up?