Untethered Typings

I read this blog post today and, while it made me cry a bit because I’m sappy like that since becoming a mom , it made me think two things. One, that while I do utter variations on those six words the blogger described to my kids a fair bit, I could afford to say them more. And two, my dad is awesome. Since it’s Father’s Day, and because it’s the one I can’t get out of my head, I’m going to say just a little bit about the latter one. I’m not sure I ever heard my dad say that he loved to watch me play - or that he loved to watch me do anything, really. It’s just not his way - to say those words. But, he also didn’t have to. He’s more the showing, doing type. And when I think about how great my dad is (which I do with marked frequency), I always come back to recalling how he showed me this kind of love in a way that was utterly clear to me, even at the time. This is especially notable because it occurred when I was a teenager. You know, one of those peeps who could have be...

Guys, things got ugly here the other night. And by “things”, I mean me. Both literally and figuratively. So much so that my husband sweetly (yet fairly accurately) named it Chernobyl 2013. I lost it. I went ballistic. Apes%@t. Bats%@t. Any kind of crazy s%@t, that was me. At once quietly raging, tears streaming down my mug. And then, ridiculously ear-splitting screaming that should have woken all of my children and the neighbours as well. Stomping. Diving into bed. Throwing blankets over my head. Sobbing. It was an off day for me in that I actually wore makeup, an extremely rare undertaking done mostly so that I could feel a little more grown up that day and maybe a little better overall - like I had my act together. Don’t judge the makeup requirement for feeling good and all that, okay? As I just said, I don’t do it often and it was just a thought. A thought that got a nice visit from a Ryu HADOOUUKEN! So, that makeup ended up all over my swollen, reddened, hot mess of a face. ...

When my husband and I bought our house, the only drawback for me was the lot size: it's only 60 feet deep. Do you want to know what that means for a back yard? Oh you do? Perfect, because I happen to have a visual for you. This is what it means: That squarish snowy area is all there is for grass in our back yard. There's a little more to the yard, not pictured, but it's just deck area so that doesn't count. Full disclosure here: we did, in fact, build that deck. And it does take up at least half of the back yard, but we do not regret the building of said deck. We use it a lot. It's good to us. But that snowy area? It may look all pristeen and such with its white blanket, but underneath lurks a lot of evidence of our owning a beagle. Even when all that evidence is cleaned up, there are still inevitable skidmarks all over the place. A disgusting reality. So, the grassy area we do have is not what you would call ideal for a play area for three kids. Which i...

Last week sucked. Eloquent, right? I know I should try to come up with a better descriptor but I can't. First of all, it did suck. It's not inaccurate to (colloquially) use the word - just weak. Well, I'm feeling kind of weak. Spent, actually. So "sucked" is what you get. Before I go further, I have to put it out there that I know what I'm about to tell you is not the worst way my family could have spent a week. I know there are many families who have it much worse every week of the year. And I feel for these people and really can't figure out how they do it and keep going. That being said, this blog is about my life so here I will describe my last week and, true to form, tell you how I feel about it all. So on New Year's Eve day, this happened: This six month old got the pneumonia and landed himself in the hospital. It took five days for Graeme to get to the point where he was safe to discharge. Though I know I am very privileged to...