Currently...Shopping, Stitching, Pouring and Other Stuff

Hat shopping. I love hats. You can check out my Hats Hats Hats Pinterest page and see that I believe in the bigger and brighter, the better. Through the winter, I probably wear a hat almost every day – nice, bright felt and wool hats, ostensibly because it’s cold, but we know better.  Now – we’ve reached spring hat season, which, of course, kicks off with Easter Sunday.  Then, for me, it’s my sorority’s fashion show luncheon that funds our scholarship fund. It’s ladies who lunch – wearing hats and so much fun.  And then – to the races!  I’m returning to the Virginia Gold Cup this year with my girlfriends, so hat shopping is in a frenzy because now we’re really talking about a Hat (with a capital H, yes.)

Sighing over celebrities who try to act like they are regular folk. Did you hear, Gwyneth Paltrow tried to promote the SNAP program by committing to eating on $29 a week? Yes, read that sentence again. Millionaire actress was going to try to feed herself on food-stamp program budget.  Really? That’s probably what she spends on coffee and a doughnut (because, I’m sure she eats chocolate dipped doughnuts with her coffee, while doing her oh-so-hard job.) She quit by day four.  Message: this is hard, let me stop pretending I’m poor and find an easier cause to uphold.

Picking out my next crochet or knit project. Right now, I’m working on baby blankets for my boom of pregnant friends. I need something for myself, though.  What I’d really like is one of those long long sweaters (dusters, I think they’re called) or maybe a bright summer shawl.  I’m trying not to buy any more yarn and dig through my stash (go ahead and laugh fellow yarn-lovers), but we’ll see. I need something by the time I leave for my sorority convention, because you know I crochet during any long meeting that I can get away with it.

Still researching drivers’ ed. Actually, I haven’t really started other than asking other parents which drivers’ ed their kid is going to because I’m a bit in denial that my kid is old enough to start driving. I took her out and let her drive around the school parking lot the other day. I can’t get her into drivers’ ed soon enough.

Enjoying pineapple vodka and rum.  A couple weeks back we had a luau-themed shindig and had a bunch of pineapples. We could not eat them all and I had to think of something to do with them. So what do you do when life gives you a bunch of pineapples? Slice them, put them in bottles and pour vodka and rum (in separate bottles) over them.  Close, let sit for at least a day, then enjoy in your favorite cocktails.  Keep away from the children.

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Have a good week folks! Keep Piddlin’!

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No Gwyneth, We Don't Think Your Mom-Life is so Hard

Okay, so let’s start out saying that being a (good) mother is not easy.  Being a bad mother just takes a lot of half-*ss effort in neglect and irresponsibility and bad judgment, but it’s a relatively lazy existence, so let’s separate out those moms who are going that path. Anyone in that category is probably not biding her time reading a mom-blog.

But to be a good mom, wow, that requires a lot more.  You’ve got to feed these little people healthy food that makes them grow, not just potato chips and sodas; wash them on a regular basis; make sure they’ve got clean clothes that fit and a place to sleep other than at their school desk and that they can read and speak and walk to the best of their abilities; you’ve got to teach people to say “please” and “thank you” and smile at people who speak to them, but not crazy strangers; you have to clap at music recitals even if they were off-key and cheer at their baseball games and be ready with a big hug when they lose the championship game. You’ve got to take a little 8 lb. bundle of reflex movements and grow them into a full-size, functional, contributing, happy, soulful person.   Whew. That’s a lot.

And we each will make our attempts to do that in different ways, as many different ways as there are mothers and children (some kind of billion factorial, if I remember correctly from stats class.)  And you know what, it’s going to be some kind of challenge for all of us because nowhere in the mom-handbook does it say that this motherhood thing is going to be easy.  In fact, I think they forgot to give me my mom-handbook when I left the hospital.

So…. With this recent chitter-chatter about Gwyneth Paltrow’s comments that moms with regular office jobs having it easier than her 1-movie/year career. Yeah, I think she’s wrong in saying that.  Yeah, I rolled my eyes, too and thought, “really, Gwyneth? You’re saying that out your mouth, out loud?”  Because we’re thinking, give me your salary, give my your nanny and chef and housekeeper and chauffeur and you can have my 9-to-5 and making school lunches before I leave for work and cooking dinner when I get home life. Today, I’m editing in between making biscuits and doing laundry and taking the kids to the movies because there’s no school, pushing aside the manuscript writing I’m already behind on.  And someone will read my plans and think “sheesh, glad I don’t have to do that” and someone else will say “ooh, I’ll trade you for my day!”  And I’ll say one or the other about another mom.

We focus on the one who’s got it easier, but we ignore the fact that someone’s got it harder.  What we need to be doing is focus on the blessing we have, as we are, and what lies before us.  And that goes for me, too, undoubtedly.  But you know how we think….

The coffee’s always sweeter on the other kitchen counter.

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It's Not Just the Celebrities. It's Your Kid, Too.

You take a kid, give him a little talent, gazillion dollars and a flock of adults on his payroll, and just for good measure, make him kinda cute, too.  What do you think is going to happen?

Justin Bieber. Chris Brown. Miley Cyrus. Just to name a recent few. Race, citizenship, gender. Doesn’t matter.

I dare say that if you gave one of my kids that much assumed power, they might act a fool, too.  Heck, if you gave all that to me, I might raise a few eyebrows, my own self.  With money and fame, often comes out-of-controlness and misbehavior. Nothing new.  Go all the way back to the Biblical prodigal son, look what happened to him. His father gave him his inheritance, he ran off and lived a wild life ‘til his money ran out, then his posse left him and he came crashing back to the reality that he needed to start acting like he had some sense.  He picked up the scraps of his life and went on home to his family, and we never heard about him again.

Hopefully, our young celebrities (and some of the old ones, too) will do the same and get hit with some common sense before they or someone else gets seriously hurt (again).  In the meantime, don’t let pop culture raise your kids.

At the same time, don’t think that foolishness is reserved for the folks in the paparazzi’s camera lens.  It doesn’t take much for a kid to get a bit too high on himself.

You’ve seen that kid.  The one who acts up in school because he knows mom will come and beg his case to the Principal.  What about the kid who killed 4 people while drunk driving and claimed that because his family was so affluent he didn’t know how to behave?  Yeah, let’s even throw in the mean girls carrying the expensive designer purses to school and snubbing their noses at the girls with the regular old department store purse because they’re potential mean-women-in-training.

So, let’s say we all agree that the lifestyle of the rich and famous (real or perceived) can be a bit crazy.  Now what?  Are we going to start telling our kids “no”?  “No, I will not bail you out of every problem you get yourself into.”  “No, as a kid without a job you cannot have consumer items that are equal to some hard-working adults’ monthly salary.”  “No, you cannot talk to me, your parent, any kind of way and not expect any consequences.”  “No, you cannot have your friends (boys & girls) over for drinks and a sleepover.”  “No, you will have to learn from your actions.”

“No. Because I love you.”

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