Tonight was our school’s Family Fun night. I was hoping my daughter would come and bring her bestie but she said “no thank you Mom.” Before the event started as I was our running errands she called me and said , ” Hey, guess what I am coming to your school event with Violet”. This made me very happy as I did not want to be gone from her all evening so this was great news. Te evening got even sweeter as I also won some great items on the silent auction. 🙂

It’s been a very long time since I have been around so many families at a school event. Covid has put a shut down on so many things including after school family events. It felt so good to be around so many happy, cheerful, smiling faces tonight from both the kids and adults. Me included.

I love celebrating St. Patrick’s. This weekend some celebrations begin. I love when the city turns the river green. I never seen it done in person but one day I would love to go- The sad thing is the older I get I have less patience for all the people. Crowds make me a little unhinged. I have taken my daughter to the South Side Irish parade and she enjoyed that as a young girl. The weather is another reason that I stay away from enjoying the festivities- you never know what it’s going to be like in March. This year is looks like a bad rain storm is suppose to be hitting around Noon. ( I’ll take the rain over snow, sometimes we get snow this time of year. ) I also seem to have no patience for stupidity. When people around me are flat out stupid and seem to not know how to act around others, I have no patience for that.

I better start working on my positive mindset and telling myself starting today that we are going- we are going. All the stars are going to aligned just right, there will not be an abundance of people and the weather is going to be good and there will be nothing but intelligent and socially appropriate people all around me. I’m asking a lot I know.

Today my daughter turns 13 and is officially a teenager. I have sadness in the fact that time goes by so fast. As much as I wanted her to pass through some stages of life quicker than others, when birthdays come around I always wish I could turn back the time and make her a young girl again. YES I really do mean that. As hard as some of those stages were I would turn back the clock in a heartbeat. I often think how high school is in two years and then college will be next. Just thinking about the day she moves out on her own makes me so sad.

For today in front of my daughter I will put on my happy face and be all full of smiles but inside I have sadness…….

I ask myself, when will the day come when I do not have to give my child 1,000 reminders to….. “take your shower” ” wake up before you miss the bus” ” clean your room” ” feed the dog” the list goes on and on. Some days I am up for the battles but tonight I am not. It feels like I have already put in a full work week and it is only Tuesday. I would think I sound like a nag and my child would not want to listen to me say it more than once or twice but there are times I have to say it 4,5,6 times before she will actually get up and do what I am asking her to do. So I ask, when does it get better.?

It’s been 40 mins since I have asked my dear sweet daughter to get in the shower and here I sit still waiting for the shower to go on. I think it is time for me to drop the rope and go to bed. I do like natural consequences, the later she gets started on her bedtime routine the later she goes to bed and that causes a problem in the morning when her alarm goes off. Who am I kidding, it causes a problem for me as well because I am the one who will be back to being a broken record telling her to get out of bed , and the bus is coming soon,,,,,yada yada.

It’s been a couple months of pondering where to go this summer. Every couple years I like to take what I call an “airplane vacation”. The summer is always filled with road trips here and there but getting on a plane and taking more than 3 days somewhere is also a must. My daughter has finally made the decision to go see family in San Diego. It feels good to have that decided on and details worked out. San Diego is such a beautiful place and there is so much to do and see. My cousins are grown adults and I am looking forward to spending some adult time with them as well. It’s time to see what new things have come about since the last time we were there and get to making the must see list. I know a day at Disney is on the list and a visit to the San Diego Zoo- it’s such a cool place.

Finding time to actually sit and bask in the warm sunshine does not come around often as I get older so it seems. It’s all about having the time to do so and living in the Midwest when several months out of the year we have gloomy skies. As kids we had so much time to play and be carefree finding time to admire the sunshine came more often. As adults there is so many things that need to get done and our time gets filled up with that instead of being able to take moments to sit and admire the sunshine.

When these times do come around there is something to be said about the sunshine and how it makes me sit and ponder on all the things I am grateful for in my life. Some things bring me pain when I reflect but I try and find the positive even in those situations. Today is one of those days that I was able to do just that- sit- ponder- and reflect. It was a great way to recharge my batteries in that moment of the day.

HUGE SIGH……after being on my feet for 12 hours straight I sit down for the first time today and it’s so quiet. I love it. The house today was filled with kids running around, yelling with laughter, asking for food, drinks, toys, you name it. When you only have one child, it makes a huge difference when multiple kids are running around the house and that is not the commotion I am used to on a day to day basis, at one point even my daughter got overwhelmed. As much as I love to entertain family and friends, it is so nice when everyone is gone and my house is back to being QUIET.

It was nice to see my daughter with a huge smile on her face when her friends and family arrived- Ice skating was first then back to the house to have fun, eat, break open the piñata, eat cake and open presents. Kids wait a long time for their birthday to come and in a flash it’s over. The day goes by so fast when you have an event taking place, why is that.

The weekend is here and I have many things to accomplish before it ends. My mind has been running all the things I need to get done since last weekend and making lists after lists. It has taken many stops at the store and questioning if I got all that I need. Tomorrow is my daughters family birthday celebration. I LOVE LOVE LOVE celebrating my daughter- I can not believe she is going to be a teenager next week. Planning a party for me is so dang stressful. No matter how many times I tell myself this is the year I am going to go into the planning with ease it never ends up like that. My back is burning as we speak with tension, my shoulders hurt and I have not sat down since I walked in the door tonight. ( Except till now as one of the thoughts in my brain is Don’t forget to SLICE)

One AMAZING thing this year is that my daughter is actually helping with getting things ready as she had off today and so she was left a Honey DO List 🙂 She got everything done and is being very gracious with doing more. What a help this is. I’m checking things off my list in my mind and it feels great as the night is still young.

Time to rap this up and relax !!!

For living in the Midwest we have had a very sweet winter overall. I am not one to complain one bit. I was hoping that once March was in our grasp we would be over and done with the white stuff but it seems it may be here again. Hey I know even in March we get snow as myself and other loved ones have birthdays this month and there have been times it has fallen from the sky as if we asked for that as a gift. LOL. So even with that said I am going to sigh about tomorrow calling for several inches. I have Spring fever and I am looking so forward to Summer. Writing about this makes me note that I have to be sure the snow brush is back in the car incase I need to use it at some point tomorrow. I would not be a happy camper if I have to relay on someone else to brush off my car at the end of my work day.

Taking on this writing challenge each year brings on a certain amount of stress for me – I am not gonna lie. The month of March is always a busy time both personally and professionally. This year I am going to try and take a different approach and mindset with each and every journal entry I make. Day 1…. I take a few deep breaths before I start my day, I am up early going through all the meetings and parent calls in my mind that I need to accomplish before the work day ends today. A few more things come to mind that I add to my already long list of events. Oh I hope it’s going to be a smooth sailing day- Woops that is not how I want to say that as that has a negative tone. It is going to be a very productive day that is going to allow me to get everything done before I call it day.