The Unexpected Housewife

Back to school.   Can’t.  This year, I had one child return to elementary school and another rose to middle school.  I love summer.  I hate back to school. Since returning to school, it has been ugly at my house. UGLY.  Chores have gone to pot.  Someone has cried every day, it has been me many times.  I have no idea what my children are eating at school or home.  Chinese food from last weekend is still being rationed to prevent me from having to produce a real meal.  I think tonight is a chicken from Costco because Bob stopped there.  No clue what is going with it…Cheerios? Scratch that, we are out of cereal. Last week one kid threw up on the bus before it ever got to school and immediately wanted to come home.  Who can blame that?  Same kid missed the bus as it left school the following day--running after it, only to be left behind and have to make the call of shame to Dad.  Dad was working a 24shift at the fire dept.  Mom was in a meeting and didn’t answer her phone becau

I have recently had so many conversations about how to balance life with a busy schedule-be it working outside the home, children, caring for parents, etc, that I wanted to put down some of the things that I have done to TRY to balance my life.  For my close friends, you know that I get mixed up, forget the book for book club, and serve dinner as cereal, so there is no firm solution-and I am no maven at this, but I am learning and have a few items that help! 1. I never cook dinner on a weeknight.  Never.  Why? After working at the office, commuting, driving people places and walking the dog, there's no way.  I also love cooking and I know if I make it a horrible chore, it will no longer be cathartic.   So---once or twice a month, I figure out about 17-20 meals that I can cook. Costco or Walmart shopping done, I have all the ingredients.  I have a list of what I am going to cook and no joke---I plot all meals in pencil on the family calendar.  I do about 20 because there will be l

About four years ago, the four of us went on a cruise.  It was a restful and fun vacation.  It was the first big vacation we took after we adopted the kids so it was like I had found heaven in that someone else would make them a sandwich. So this year we decided to repeat the experience. My mom joined us this year-and I hope future years that the list will grow because the more the merrier--with about 5000 people on board, it's great when you know a few, right? I literally had a countdown going and couldn't wait.  We drove to Florida on Friday, stayed at our fave port hotel and then got aboard the ship on Saturday. It's always fun to go someplace you have been with someone who's not been-and see it through their eyes.  It was that way with my mom--she was enamored and found the experience to be exciting and fun.  We were on the ship for about 10 minutes and Bob found me a rum punch.  Bless that man and our partnership. It was really great week, full of rest-and adve

Our family recently purchased a new camper---it's pretty sweet.  Let me tell you a bit of this backstory. Bob and I loved camping-even independently before we knew each other.  In college, I worked for an outdoor store and have loved camping ever since.  It's my inner hippie that I now hide under my suit.  Catch me camping and I'm in a doo rag, drinking a beer with my old koozie and walking late night with my dog.  Bob says every now and then the hippie comes out.  She is full on today. When we married, we took a few tent trips together and had fun.  Truth be told, Ben the Dog never really slept when we camped, always ready to defend me.  Bella the Bulldog, Bob's dog, took his cue, and one of our laughable memories now was that after a long night in the tent, Bob turned to me and said, "So glad to see NO ONE slept last night." The kids came along and we introduced them.  We tent camped on Grandfather Mt in NC--now a treasured and special place for us.  Howe

This April, Bob and I will be married seven years.  One of my favorite things about being married seven years and having a ten and eleven year old is the math people try to do their head when I tell them the numbers that don't classically add up.  It's comical. Seven years.  People talk about the seven year itch.  There is even a movie dedicated to the topic.  Ugh.     I mentioned recently to a friend this weekend, that almost seven years later, it's keeps getting better with Bob.  She responded "That's the way it's supposed to be."    It made me realize that I didn't totally get that at face value. Truth is, this is right about the time that my first marriage failed.  I'll spare you details because frankly, it's not that interesting and not my favorite topic.  But, in that case, everything became hard, so when I realized that this time around, things keep getting better, I thought this was worthy of a blog. Looking back at my marriage

For Christmas the kids received a trip to Florida from us and my mother.  The trip included two days at Universal so the kids could fulfill their dream to actually become wizards at Universal Studios-and then two days at Disney.  When the kids received T-shirts with accompanying reservation documents, they were baffled and it required enough explanation that Bob assured them that no one was recruiting them for the FBI. We packed the car Christmas night.  It was all set. The next morning, we got in the car.  It wouldn’t start.  At all.  We charged the battery for a while.  Nope.  It won’t start. No problem.  Let’s move everything to the truck.  Because driving the new F150 is what I wanted to do. But the trunk won’t open because the battery is dead.  It was really fun moving all the luggage out of the back of the Highlander through the back seat, out of the car, and into the bed of the truck.  That was a unique way to start the roadtrip.  Might have been some 4 letter words.