Recently I have come to realize that I have learned far more from parenting than I have outwardly noticed, beyond raising up my children.  Yes there are times when I do have to choose what is the better thing to argue about with them and more often than not the result is, “Don’t argue with me go do as your told!” stated to the ‘offending’ child.  Although its not always about the children doing as they are told, but what they choose to wear, TV shows to watch, books to read, eat for a snack/meal.  Yes there are always arguments waiting to happen in those issues with any child as they grow, but sometimes, somethings just aren’t worth getting worked up over and at the end of the day this same principle has come in to my adult life.  I have come to realize that I can choose which arguments to have with other people.  Its not just about what is or is not perceived as a slight against ourselves, its about having an easy calmer life. 

In the end it is more often than not about avoiding drama.  As much as we like a little drama in our lives, a lot is not so nice.  A little flutter and flurry to get the heart racing is all good and then there is the draining, gut wrenching, physically demanding drama that we all like to avoid.  Yet, ironically, there really are people who appear to thrive on this type of drama.  Really. There is.  I can not see how someone could enjoy such upheaval in their daily life!  The stress, the agony, but then there is the attention that the drama brings.  And maybe that’s what its all about.  When you’re raising children, you have to find the balance of good and bad attention.  Yes, contrary to popular belief, there is such a thing.  And I can speak from personal experience, that it is very hard to find that line and even more difficult to come back from the extreme of one or the other, usually the negative.

Sitting back and recalling my childhood, I do not recall either of my parents saying to me, “is it really worth the argument?” but then it wasn’t until I was much much older that I started arguing with my siblings.  And by that time it was only one wise in the head that got in between any of those “interactions”!  What best I can do now is to try to teach my children that sometimes some things just are not worth the stress, worry anxiety and exhaustiveness of some arguments.  Goodness knows it took me long enough to learn this!

I still hear the song from the kids show with Bill Cosby when I was a much younger child in my head every time I sit down and consider a picture post …

Oh where does time go!  Right now I have that line from the soap opera “Days of Our Lives” ~ the “like the sands of time flowing through the hour glass, these are the DAYS OF OUR LIVES!”

Things have been hectic lately and when it wasn’t, I just didn’t have the energy to do much, of anything.

This coming weekend I amhaving the Monster party at Lake Sundance and what a BIG BASH it is looking to be!  As the monsters birthdays are October, November, December, I have been thinking that it would be easier on my pocket book to have one big party instead of three smaller parties, back to back.  And you know what??  I’m thinking I’m right.  My biggest expense is going to be a bounce house, since January I have been collecting hotdogs and hamburgers to stick in the deep freeze, and now that summer is here a box or two of freezies.  I already have face paints and will be having a friend come to paint faces and I made a pinata.  Yes I made a pinata.  While its not hard …. its not all that easy either!  Or so I have discovered!  After having about six balloons in various stages of being covered in paper mache blow up in my face, I FINALLY got the one that didn’t.  But I still had to start over.  Next year I think I will make one while consuming gross amounts of wine …

All the while getting this together, I have also started slinging coffee again working at Starbucks.  The short version of the long story, as summer looms, many children are leaving my day home, some returning after the summer, some not.  I have been looking for new ones, but all the calls I have been getting are looking for childcare to start in September.  I need them to start right now.  HOWEVER!  Working at Starbucks gets me out of the house, meeting new people, and having adult conversations.  AND I only have to work 20 hours a week to be eligible for medical and dental benefits adn I get a free pound of coffee every week!  Although I only just started working there, I really enjoy it!   I think I’ll have to make this one a longer time commitment … free coffee y’all!

Recently, my mother was diagnosed with infiltrating ductal carcinoma breast cancer and had a partial mastectomy with in weeks of the diagnosis.  Sadly it turns out that the surgery was not successful in getting it all, it had already moved to the lymph nodes.  Even as I sit and write this I am moved to tears just thinking about the pain my mother will now have to go through in her treatment options.  Last year, my mother had a heart attack which lead to the discovery that she has heart disease caused by a virus she had caught earlier in the year.  I really can’t help but think, why her?  What has my mother done that would bring such horrible health issues one after the other upon her? The worst part is that there is no one, organization, or physical thing to get angry at because these things have happened.  I am trying to deal with this, but sadly I think there is only one thing left to do, try to make the best of what are numbered days with my mother in my life.